Aquamarine and Steel
by Scultone
Summary: Lir Elodea spent several years out of Fiore in an attempt to avoid her previous guild after escaping its oppressive control. Upon her return she is snapped up by Fairy Tail and has to contend with the challenges of a much larger guild, which she discovers are not limited to external forces. But if she can come to lean on her guild mates she might just flourish in Fairy Tail.
1. Storm on the Horizon

The air in the crumbling temple hung heavy with the scent of mold, stagnation, and rot. Normally, Lir's sensitive nose would have made it difficult to stomach such a strong, unpleasant odor but after years exploring ruins it didn't affect her much anymore. Max, Vijeeter, and Warren, on the other hand, coughed and scrunched up their noses as they passed through the ancient rooms, following her lead as she guided them to the central chamber where a valuable artifact hopefully waited.

"How much further?" Warren asked.

"Not much, the end of this hall I think," Lir replied.

The hallway had once been ornate and regal, much like the rest of the temple, but now the grime-covered marble was disintegrating and any paint or carvings had been worn away long ago. It was barely more than a cave at present, complete with echoing water drips and nebulous groaning sounds. The only light came from the lacrima lanterns Warren and Max carried, creating a glowing field around them. She could see about thirty feet into the pitch-black darkness courtesy of her enhanced eyesight so she noticed the empty pedestal at the end of the hall first. After a few more steps the lamplight revealed it to the rest of them.

"Is there seriously nothing here?" Vijeeter exclaimed.

"Don't panic yet," she said.

She walked to the back wall and knocked her way along it until she found a brick that felt hollow and shoved it in hard. A heavy thud echoed through the hall followed by the sound of stone scraping against stone as the wall pried itself open to reveal a staircase going down.

"This should be it," Lir said, leading the way down.

The stairs opened up into a rectangular chamber with a high, vaulted ceiling and in better condition than the rest of the temple. A thick layer of dust settled over everything but statues of soldiers lining the path to the podium in the middle of the room could have been carved yesterday. Perched atop the podium was a twelve-inch tall, golden, jewel-encrusted idol in the form of an ancient goddess - likely an invaluable piece of information for the museum that hired them to find it.

"Oh thank gods, I thought we were going to have to go through another false room," Max said.

"Seriously, let's grab it and get out of here," Vijeeter added.

Warren stepped forward and Lir watched attentively as he approached the pedestal; the floor was clear of pressure plates or trick panels concealing pits of spikes and she didn't smell any caches of explosive chemicals. But intuition and years of experience told her the room wasn't clear.

"Wait," Lir called out.

"What is it?" Warren asked.

She walked up to the pedestal, eyes sweeping over the finely carved details, and circled it. A small sun-shaped symbol caught her attention, the lines around it were not just shallow carvings like the rest but cut deep into the stone. She pressed the button, causing a loud clunk to echo through the room and a six inch wide section of the wall, even with Warren, slid open. She walked over to it and cautiously reached into the darkness until she felt the edge of a sharp piece of metal. Further groping found her the wooden pole attached to it and a strong yank brought it out into the torchlight. A huge, curved, ax-like blade had been poised to swing out and slice the person standing at the pedestal in two.

"How did you know that was there?" Max asked, shocked.

"This is a ruin from the Chidro civilization," she said. "They didn't use a lot of traps, but this one isn't uncommon for them."

She released the blade and it swung harmlessly a few times before settling. Warren glanced nervously around the room, scrutinizing all the nooks and crannies he had passed over when they entered.

"Do you think there is anything else like that in here?" he asked.

"No, I doubt it," she replied.

"So if I get impaled or shot with poison darts you're putting yourself as my cause of death on the paperwork when you get back," he said, half-joking but also half-serious.

"I promise there's nothing else," she replied with a sincere smile.

He gave her a sideways glance before snatching the relic and leaping back. Nothing happened. The room remained still and silent apart from Warren's frantic heartbeat that only he and Lir could hear.

"See, nothing to worry about," Lir said.

But the second the words left her mouth a new scent hit her. The scent of a lot of people.

She whipped around to face the only entrance to the chamber. "We're about to have company."

The others followed suit, stepping into fighting stances. She wished the Chirdorians were the type to include secret passages in their temples, giving them another route out to avoid a fight in what was likely a structurally unsound room. The sound of numerous footsteps echoed down the stairs. Whoever this was there was a lot of them. She reached inside herself for her arsenal of spells, prepping Water Dragon's Blue Streak, one that made her stronger and faster. The others fired high powered blasts of water that she really didn't want to let loose in such close quarters with allies. The footsteps grew louder with each passing second. The adrenaline mounting in the room was almost palpable.

Then, finally, the interlopers emerged through the doorway. At least two dozen rough-looking men and women poured into the room, wearing mishmashed bits of armor and weapons. Lir's gut said they were bandits. A man in the front of the group stepped forward with the gravitas of being in charge. A jagged, pink scar ran down his cheek and jaw, cutting through his five o'clock shadow.

"We'll be takin' that artifact," he said, gesturing at the object Warren held.

"You think we'll just hand it over?" he replied.

"That, or we're gonna we're gonna pummel you for it."

"I don't think you know who you're dealing with," Warren said.

"It really doesn't matter because there's four 'a you and twenty of us."

The bandits began to assume fighting stances. Lir smelled fire, metal, and plant magic on them among others with less distinctive scents. This would be a dangerous fight, less due to the bandits themselves and more due to the crumbling stone around them. She suspected they hadn't taken that into consideration.

"What's the plan, boss?" Lir asked.

Warren glanced over their opponents. "Keep them bunched up. Vijeeter, you're on the offensive too, we take them out quickly. Limit your big spells or we'll bring this place down on our heads."

The three nodded. Vijeeter started drumming out a rhythm with his heel and Lir felt a rush of strength.

"Get 'em!" the bandit leader shouted.

They charged but the Fairy Tail mages were quick. Max launched a blast of sand at them, blinding them while Lir and Vijeeter flanked to the sides and dropped stragglers with powerful kicks and body throws. Warren cast his disorientation spell which didn't affect his allies but Lir could feel it tingling on her skin; the bandits began to stagger about like they were suddenly drunk.

"Sand wave!" Max shouted, knocking down two more confused, stumbling bandits.

"Poison cloud!" an unfamiliar voice shouted.

Lir's hypersensitive nose picked up the pungent smell, recognizing it as CS gas immediately. The room filled with the scent and her lungs and throat started to burn. She coughed hard but it brought no relief. Vijeeter and Max doubled over, hacking for air.

"Water dragon's steam blast!"

She brought forth a spell circle from which hot steam exploded and filled the room, but it seemed to do nothing against the gas cloud. Her eyes started to sting and water profusely, leaving her effectively blind, and snot poured out of her nose. The urge to lash out with a random spell was overwhelming, anything to maybe hit a bandit, but the risk of hitting Max, Warren, or Vijeeter was too high. She coughed again, only sucking more CS gas into her lungs. Then pain exploded in her head as something hard smashed into her skull. A few seconds of time vanished and she found herself on the ground and a pair of boots standing in front of her.

"Not quite so tough, are ya?" a voice asked.

Her vision spun and everything hurt. She fumbled to push herself up, not really having any idea what her body was doing. One of the boots launched forward and connected with her gut, driving the air out of her lungs. She gasped in more gas, only vaguely aware of how much that hurt in the face of everything else.

"What do we do with 'em, boss?" a voice asked.

"Just leave them," another replied, dismissively.

Something inside Lir started moving her body to get back up, she didn't know what it was but she had to get on her feet. She managed to get her legs underneath her and, with a significant amount of effort, drove herself into a standing position. The weight of her upper body lurched to the side, making her stagger several steps to regain her balance. Her head pounded and she only caught glimpses of the bandits as her vision tilted and flickered.

"Water Dragon's Riptide!"

A magic circle opened in front of her and a torrent of water shot out like a cannon blast. She had been aiming for the leader but only clipped the side of his group, hitting two others and throwing them into a wall. Dust and debris rained down from the stone ceiling. One wound up with a fireball aimed at her head. Instinct made her cast another spell immediately.

"Water Dragon's Seawall!"

The fireball sizzled out on the wall of vibrating, pressurized water in front of her. With a thrust of her arms, she launched it at the bandits, giving them a hearty smack but not doing any real damage. Her head spun from the poison in the air and she could feel her consciousness slipping.

"Water Dragon's Breaker!"

She threw another wave but it sailed right over their heads. She took a deep breath reflexively, expecting relief, but felt as though she had swallowed acid instead.

"You've got a lot of fight for one stupid -" the leader started but was cut off.

"Psionic burst!"

A shockwave exploded from somewhere behind her, hitting her in the back and knocking her to her knees. The bandits took it harder and were slammed flat on their backs.

"Cleanse!"

She finally recognized it as Warren casting spells. The scent and presence of the CS gas vanished and she gasped in a breath of clean air before doubling over to continue heaving.

"Are you guys alright?" Warren exclaimed.

"Just a little banged up," Lir said, through her labored breathing.

"Yeah, nothing too bad," Max added, voice equally as breathy.

Warren shook his head and turned slightly away from them. "Psionic burst always takes so long to cast. And I hit you guys with it too."

"Yeah, barely!" Vijeeter interjected, gesturing to the unconscious bandits scattered about the room. "Look how bad those assholes got hit while we're still standing!"

Lir's head pounded and her torso ached from the kick which she ignored as she got to her feet, trying to minimize how much pain she looked like she was in. No need to make Warren worry over some minor injuries.

Warren shook his head. "I need to work on it. I won't let that happen again."

The others didn't respond, still trying to bring their breathing under control. She had been through worse fights and knew she'd be mostly fine in a few minutes. Until one of the bandits groaned and stirred on the ground.

"Time to bounce," Vijeeter said, already making for the door.

"Yep, no point waiting around here," Max added, right behind him.

Max, Vijeeter, and Lir hobbled up the stairs as fast as they could while Warren watched behind them. They stumbled down a long hallway, out the hidden passage Lir found, through various smaller tombs, and through the antechamber before making it outside. The temple was nestled in a dense area of woods several miles outside Onibus Town, overgrown and hidden by decades of vines and shrubbery. They uncovered their backpacks from a thicket of bushes and moved as quickly as they could for the road back, decidedly against tangling with the bandits again.

A few hours later saw them at Onibus Town's train station with the payment for delivering the artifact the local museum - a solid 160,000 jewels split four ways.

"Did you know bandits were going to show up?" Max asked Warren.

Warren was notorious for taking jobs solo so the invitation of three other mages had to have been for a reason.

"I had my suspicions. There were a lot of reports of raids on historic sites in the area. I imagined someone would be watching for mages to do all the legwork of finding that temple and then swoop in a take the artifacts for themselves," he replied.

A train pulled into the station, its breeze tossing Lir's wavy, teal around, and the four boarded. Max found an empty compartment and they settled themselves in for the two-hour ride back to Magnolia. Vijeeter, as per usual, passed out almost immediately and Max pulled out a thick tome on sand magic, leaving Lir with tense anxiety of trying to think of a way to start a conversation with Warren. The train crawled forward and built to a speed that sent the trees rushing by in a green blur.

"So, I was wondering," Warren said, giving her a jolt. "Since you know a lot about temples and ruins, would you be interested in clearing a few more of these jobs with me?"

She blinked in surprise. "You want me to help you?"

"Of course. Some of those temple missions are starting to rack up big rewards since no one can actually find the artifacts but are still only ranked A-Class," he said. "And you obviously know what you're doing."

"You, I, I mean, I'd love to," she stammered.

"Great! I'll put a stake on a few of those for us when we get back," he replied.

She couldn't contain her grin and turned her attention out the window to distract herself with the scenery rushing by. Warren was one of the stronger mages in Fairy Tail - a fact that surprised her when she first joined the guild. He wasn't on the same level as the S-Class mages but he could go toe to toe with the likes of Natsu, Gray, and Elfman and regularly pulled high paying jobs due to his skill with psychic magic. And since she joined Fairy Tail a few months ago she had mostly been floating around, helping others clear the request board of all the jobs that required a water-based mage. This was her first offer otherwise and from a strong mage she liked working with no less.

Her leg started bouncing with excited energy as, for the first time in months, the fear that she had made the wrong call in joining a guild again abated. Maybe the voice in the back of her head that insisted the guild would run every aspect of her life and make her miserable was wrong. Her imagination took off with thoughts of them clearing ruins all over the kingdom which entertained for the remaining hour and a half of the trip.

When they disembarked it was evening, the sun casting an orange glow across the entire town and the streets packed with post-workday crowds. Lir had a bounce in her step and her large traveling bag felt weightless on her back.

"I swear if Natsu took that job in the Ossein Badlands I'm going to kill him," Max said.

"Good luck fighting him for it," Vijeeter said, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Natsu isn't going to take that job because it doesn't involve killing a monster or fighting thugs," Warren said. "I don't think anyone else in the guild is going to take a job involving that much sand besides you, Max."

"I sure hope so," he replied, picking up his pace.

When they made it to the guildhall it was packed to the brim with drinking, roughhousing mages and booming with loud music. They had to elbow and shove their way through their guildmates to get to the bar to get the debrief paperwork and turn in the guild's cut of the reward. Mirajane was mixing drinks for a few of the other mages seated at the bar and gave them a "hang on a minute" gesture when she noticed them before finishing.

"So how did it go?" she asked, wiping her hands on a towel.

"Fairly well. Some bandits gave us a bit of trouble but nothing we couldn't handle," Warren replied.

She pulled a packet of paperwork from under the bar and handed it to him and he took a seat.

"You guys can go, I'll deal with this," he said.

Max and Vijeeter said their goodbyes and disappeared into the hall but Lir sat down next to him. Mira produced a tall glass of water and handed it to her before leaning on the bar across from them.

"You finished much quicker than I expected," she said. "That mission has been failed a few times."

"Well all that research I did with Levy beforehand helped a lot so it wasn't too hard to find. Not to mention Lir, she got us through in a flash," Warren said, not looking up from the forms.

Heat rose to Lir's cheeks and she looked away. "Ah, it was nothing. I've just been through a lot of ruins."

Mira gave her a kind smile making her look away and scratch the back of her head to conceal how flustered she was. Warren finished the paperwork and returned them to Mira, who walked back up the bar to file it in another stack of forms. Lir took a long drink of water, feeling a rush as her magic used it to replenish her spent ethernano.

"Well, I'm going to head home, I'm about ready to pass out," Warren said, hopping off his barstool.

"Okay, I'm going to hang out a bit longer," she replied.

"Sounds good," he said. "Hey, unless you get snapped up for another job tonight we can start picking dungeon diving jobs tomorrow."

"That sounds great!" she exclaimed.

He waved a goodbye to her before pushing his way back through the crowd. Lir swung her legs back and forth, taking a moment to let her mind settle from the excitement.

"Come on Laxus, fight me!" Natsu's voice suddenly cut through the din of the hall.

She lifted her head and glanced around, there were far too many scents and sounds in the guildhall for her to differentiate between them so she hadn't noticed the Thunder God Tribe enter. She leaned back to catch a glimpse of them, she'd heard much of their exploits in her short time since joining and they almost seemed inhuman, especially their leader, Laxus. Was it possible for someone so young to be so strong or had the stories been embellished? Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen sat down further up the bar, talking amongst themselves. Bickslow's seith dolls floated around their heads, she shuddered at the notion of the human souls trapped inside. Laxus himself sat six barstools up from her with only Bisca and Alzack between them, pointedly ignoring Natsu who had followed him. At a closer range, despite the bustling guildhall, she could smell his dragon slayer magic - a faint, reptilian scent mixed with raw ethernano - and the almost burning, ozone-y odor of his lightning magic. Especially surprising was the fact that she could _feel _the charged air around him, similar to the feeling before a thunderstorm.

And it was plain as day why girls fawned over him constantly, he was ridiculously handsome. So tall he towered over even her - and she was far and away the tallest girl in the guild - with a chiseled jaw, thick, blond hair and a scar over his right eye. But she had also heard that he wasn't the nicest guy, especially to new and lower-ranked mages so she opted not to draw attention to herself, sinking back into her massive hair.

"I heard we finally got a water mage," he said.

Lir stiffened and pointedly looked away, hoping he wouldn't notice her.

"We did," Mira said plainly. "She's been helping clear the board of the water mage jobs. She just got back from a mission with Warren, Max, and Vijeeter."

"Doesn't sound like she's all that strong then," he replied in a disdainful tone.

Heat flushed to Lir's face and an intense feeling of shame came over her. Logically she knew she shouldn't care what he had to say about her strength, but it didn't feel good to hear that from an S-Class mage of her new guild.

"She does well for herself," Mira retorted, clearly not happy with Laxus's judgment.

"I was hoping to take on that Vulen empire artifact job but if she's taking jobs with _them, _I don't think she could cut it," he said.

Lir was about to just get up and leave when Natsu decided to open his giant, stupid mouth.

"That's only because you've never seen her fight! Lir's really strong!" he proclaimed.

Her shame turned to horror instantly and her stomach dropped.

"Lir! Get over here!" Natsu called out.

At that moment she would have traded anything for her magic to be 'disappearing into the floor' if it got her out of her present situation. It was too late to make a mad dash out of the guildhall, though, as Laxus was already staring her down. She slunk off her barstool and over to their end of the bar.

"Hi, I'm Lir Elodea," she said, extending her hand to Laxus.

He gave her an obvious once over, making her squirm. "Have you ever even been on an A-Class mission?"

"Yes. Several!" she said defensively. "I finished a double-A mission on my own once!"

"A measly double-A doesn't matter much, the one I'm looking at is a double S," he sneered.

"You say that like it matters to your job how strong I am."

She didn't want to put the words in his mouth that he was planning on dragging her along but that seemed to be the direction he was headed.

"It's not like there are any other water mages in the guild," he said, making a vague gesture around the room.

Lir grimaced and a pit of dread settled in her stomach. "You're not… considering asking me to come on this job, are you?"

"Laxus you can't. That job is so dangerous!" Mira interjected.

"I thought Natsu said she was strong?" the tone in his voice seemed to dare Mira to counter him, to call Lir weak to her face.

Mira's lips pulled together in a tight frown and didn't answer. Lir's heart hammered and her hands were clammy, she knew she should turn him down but she couldn't get the words to form. For as much as she didn't want to go on his job, she couldn't force her way past the block in her head of saying no. He would be mad and she would be the source and that was something her ego couldn't handle.

"Wouldn't I just slow you down?" she said.

"Yeah, I imagine you would. But the temple is underwater so we need you to get us there," he replied.

She bristled, shocked by how arrogant he was and she couldn't even begin to think of a response that would have any effect on him.

"I don't have to go on this mission," she said.

"You'd be stupid not to, the payout is going to be huge."

"It won't matter if I get killed on a job so far out of my league."

"Come on, you're throwing away an opportunity that no one else in this guild will ever get," he said.

She could feel herself caving, unable to come up with a good reason to say no. If only Warren had picked out a job before going home!

"I mean, if you really can't get another water mage," she heard the words coming out of her mouth but didn't feel like she was actually saying them.

"Great, we leave at eight in the morning, day after tomorrow from the train station," he said with an awful smirk before getting up and walking away.

"What have I done?" Lir muttered.

"You'll be fine," Mira said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "They'll make sure you get out in one piece. The Master would kill them if they let something happen to you."

"Is he like that all the time?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, he is," Mira replied, an uncharacteristic bitterness in her tone. "Sometimes I wonder why he hasn't just left the guild if he finds it so beneath him."

The dread inside her multiplied, if Mira had such a low opinion of him she was doomed. "Ugh, why did I agree to this?" Lir asked, putting her face in her hands.

"You'll be alright," Mira said, her voice returning to its normal kind demeanor. "Just think of how good this will look on your resume."

Lir chuckled, almost finding it funny. "Yeah, that's true."

Suddenly she didn't feel like hanging around the guildhall, her stomach churned and her heart fluttered nervously like a trapped bird. She wanted to be at home, by herself, to try and not think about Laxus or the job he had strong-armed her into.

She hopped off her barstool, her body feeling full of lead. "Hey, Mira? Can you let Warren know that I'm going on Laxus's job?"

"Of course," Mira said, a sympathetic, almost pitying look on her face.

"Thanks."

Lir waved her goodbye before pushing her way back out of the guildhall. Night had set in and the crowds had thinned greatly. The bounce in her step was gone, replaced by a quick, almost frantic pace, and she kept her head down. Aching anxiety settled in her chest, locking her heart in a vice grip, making it feel like it was trying to beat in a vat of molasses.

_No, don't be afraid of him. _

She was the water dragon slayer, trained by Oceanus, the dragon queen of the sea. She wouldn't be scared of him no matter how little he thought of her. Besides, he needed her for the job and she knew more about ancient ruins than anyone in the guild. She balled her hands into fists and fixed her face into a serious expression, she could do this. She'd prove herself to him and the Thunder God Tribe.

* * *

AN: So I'm going to try this story again. It's significantly different from my first attempt and I have a much clearer idea of where it's going to go now. Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


	2. Lion's Den

Anxiety took root the second she opened her eyes. Her resting heart rate skyrocketed to a steady hundred beats per minute and nausea filled her up, threatening to spill over at the slightest nudge. It would be so easy to say she was sick and not face Laxus, Mira would certainly back her up. She swung her legs over the side of her bed and sat up, her wavy hair tumbled over her shoulder, the ends starting to fade to a light, springy green from its normal teal color. It needed a trim.

The clock on the wall read 6:32 and it was a twenty-minute walk to the train station. She needed to get up and do a final check of her supplies but she felt pinned to her bed by a massive weight pressing down on her shoulders, as though if she didn't get out of bed the day wouldn't start and she wouldn't have to deal with Laxus. The minutes dragged on, slow and painful, as she wrestled with the desire to bail on the mission. Asking Makarov to make Laxus release her from the job crossed her mind but the shame of that ordeal sounded even worse than just doing it. Laxus would hate her guts. At 6:58 she flung her blanket off her shoulders and dashed to the bathroom, taking advantage of a momentary flicker of motivation.

She dragged out every task until the last possible minute, double and triple checked her traveling backpack and still felt like she was forgetting something. After going through four different outfits she finally settled on a pair of blue leggings with light blue, mesh fins on the calves and quads and a maroon crop top. She put on her well worn, brown leather traveling boots and shuffled out to the kitchen. Her stomach roiled and the idea of any food sounded revolting but if she got a case of the shakes from not eating in front of Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe she might actually die of embarrassment. So she forced down a bowl of plain oatmeal before putting on her backpack and slinking to the front door.

"You can do this," she muttered. "It's just a job."

She marched out the door and quickly locked it before she changed her mind. Not all SS-Class missions were inherently dangerous, some were just incredibly challenging or specific. And she couldn't imagine Laxus would take her along if he thought she'd get killed right out of the gate. It didn't mean he wouldn't mock her the whole time, though. Maybe the Thunder God Tribe would be less antagonistic than their leader. Or maybe she would sprout wings and fly away from this whole situation. She scowled, mostly at herself, for letting herself get strongarmed into the job and kicked a small rock sending it bouncing across the street.

Despite not wanting to get to the train station at all her pace was frenzied and quick, keeping her head down and trying not to think. If she let her mind run wild with how awful this job could be she knew she'd never be able to force herself to go. When she reached the station the giant analog clock read 7:51, so she collapsed on a bench and pinched her hands between her knees.

Time plugged forward simultaneously too slow and too fast for her liking, every minute bringing her closer to the inevitable confrontation but also just getting it over with. After ten minutes passed she caught their scents being blown in by the morning breeze and jolted to look in their direction. The four approached her and she stood up, feeling a lot like a cornered prey animal. Evergreen gave her a blatant once over and didn't look impressed.

"This is our water mage?" she asked.

Heat flushed to her face and turned her cheeks bright red. "Yeah, I'm a water dragon slayer."

"Huh," Bickslow said, leaning in close to her. "I didn't know we had three of those."

"I'm, um, I'm pretty new," she muttered.

"Well that explains it," he said.

"Explains! Explains!" his dolls chanted and bobbed up and down behind him.

She suppressed a shudder, feeling his seith magic crawl across her skin like a giant spider. Thankfully, the train pulled into the station, it's wind blowing her hair in her face. Laxus handed her a ticket before they all filed onto the train and settling in an empty compartment. She took a seat next to the window and Freed sat next to her while the others sat on the opposing bench. After a few moments, the train began to chug forward and the conductor came around to punch holes in their tickets.

Lir rested her chin in her palm and her elbow on the windowsill and tried to focus on the scenery rushing by, the city quickly giving way to expansive farms and plains. Her chest still ached from nervousness but she didn't feel quite as nauseous. However, before she could really calm down Laxus seemed to read her mind.

"You don't get motion sick?" he asked, his tone accusatory.

He looked like he was in pain and a thin sheen of sweat had formed on his face, his knuckles were white from gripping the armrest so hard. Oh, right, dragon slayer magic-induced motion sickness. Natsu had it too but Lir was so far unaffected by it. She should have realized that Laxus would seemingly have it the worst of all of them. She just shook her head.

"Then how'd you get a nickname like Sea Serpent?" Bickslow asked, leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees.

"It's Leviathan, and I _did _slay a scylla," she said.

Laxus closed his eyes and leaned his head back to rest on the cabin wall, evidently uninterested in her explanation.

"Those aren't so tough, just three or four heads to cut off and bam, you're done," Bickslow said.

"Bam! Bam!" his puppets echoed.

"The one in Nokoware Bay had way more than four heads," she said, unable to keep all of the petulance out of her voice.

"_You _were the one who killed that beast?" Freed demanded.

"Yeah, by myself too," she replied, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back

Silence fell over the cabin, the Thunder God Tribe apparently unable to generate a reason why that didn't count as a legitimate feat. Lir was just grateful not to be under their scrutiny. Before she could start down a spiral of "what horrible things are they thinking about me" she pulled a worn, leather-bound notebook from her backpack and flipped through the pages. Several years ago she had filled nearly half the book with sketches and notes taken during a mission in a Vulen Empire ruin. Few structures from the civilization remained scattered through Ishgar and even less writing on it existed, so anything she had would help.

After a moment of scanning her map of the temple in Caelum, she could feel Freed reading over her shoulder. She glanced up at him to find more curiosity on his face than judgment.

"You've been in a Vulen temple before?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was a while ago though," she replied.

"Do you mind if I look?" he gestured to the journal.

She nodded and passed the book to him. He flipped through her entries on the temple, quickly reading her notes.

"You seem to know your way around ancient ruins," he said.

"Yeah, I uh, it's my specialty," she said, rubbing her bicep.

"It's a good thing you're the water mage, then," he said, handing her the notebook.

"I just hope I can help," she said, a little stunned by his statement.

The rest of the trip passed slowly - and painfully for Laxus. The others stayed quiet for his sake, reading or sleeping to make it through the lengthy journey. When the train pulled into the station they disembarked as quickly as Laxus could manage, a plodding crawl with a death glower on his face. The Thunder God Tribe made no reference to the situation so Lir decided to keep her mouth shut rather than ask him if he needed help. He refused to stop and rest and eventually the motion sickness wore off, returning him to his normal stride and allowing him to lead the rest of the way to the museum.

It wasn't until they turned a corner onto the museum's street, revealing the regal, mostly glass building that she realized she'd never asked who the client was. She held her hand up to block out the blinding reflection from the setting sun.  
"I'm sorry, this is a job for the Royal Institute of Peoples and Cultures?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes, we've done a handful of missions for them before," Freed said.

Equal parts awe and fear battled inside her. The Institute was one of the most prestigious establishments when it came to ancient civilizations and boasted a huge collection of rare artifacts; if they were hiring a team of mages for a job it wouldn't be anything simple or typical. Laxus, Bickslow, and Evergreen were undaunted by the museum and carried on, forcing her to scramble after them.

When they walked inside she was smacked with the scent of ancient objects that had been soaking in enclosed, dusty spaces for centuries, completely juxtaposed with the clean, bright surfaces of the museum itself. Lir couldn't contain her amazement at the collection before her, pottery, jewelry, weapons, and even yellowing scrolls written in long-dead languages. Freed walked up next to her as she nearly gaped at a jewel-encrusted, silver crown in a glass case.

"We recovered that on the last job we did for the Institute," he said. "We had to kill a manticore to get it."

"No way, a manticore in Fiore?" she asked, glancing at him skeptically.

"I know, it sounds unbelievable, we were equally as shocked when we discovered it," he said.

Her mouth started to go dry and her palms went clammy. Dungeon crawling through an old temple was right up her alley but fighting powerful, exotic monsters was decidedly not.

"What do think we'll be up against this time?" she asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice.

"Well the temple is submerged in a lake so I suspect there will be the usual fair of giant, lake-dwelling fish and amphibians. Otherwise, we'll just have to see what the Vulen Empire has left behind for us," he said.

She tried to take some confidence from his casual tone, there couldn't be anything they would be unable to handle if he sounded so calm about it. But she still didn't like how the mission was escalating in difficulty. Then, the scent of a new human drifted into the airy space, causing Lir and Laxus to turn their heads in their direction before they actually appeared in the room. A middle-aged man wearing a fine suit emerged from around the corner holding a file stuffed with papers.

"Ah, Laxus, right on time," he said.

Lir took half a step back so Freed was between her and the man, but it didn't do her much good because he swept his eyes over the Thunder God Tribe before settling on her.

"You must be the water mage," he said, extending a hand to her. "I'm Rechal Copper, the curator of the Royal Institute."

She met him with a handshake. "I'm Lir Elodea."

"The Leviathan? I've heard a few things about you," he said with a curious look in his eyes.

"I, uh, well," she stammered.

"Don't worry, nothing bad," he said with a chuckle.

She gave a grin that she was sure came across as sheepish before Laxus cut in.

"So what information do you have for us about this artifact?" he asked.

"The item in question we are after is a sword rumored to be enchanted with a spell of perdition. It could be incredibly dangerous if in the wrong hands so it is more than a mere matter of wanting a rare artifact," Rechal explained, handing Laxus a paper with a rendering of a sword.

"A perdition spell?" Evergreen asked.

Rechal's expression grew dark. "It rips the soul out of a living person and binds it to the sword, turning the person into a husk. They're still alive, but only in the most technical sense."

Lir's stomach dropped like she'd been pushed off a high ledge. A perdition spell? Such a sword wouldn't be sitting in an average temple, it would be buried in the most elaborate, dangerous traps the ancient civilization could muster. She should have known the second they walked into the building that would be the caliber of mission she was on.

"Regardless of what it's enchanted with we'll recover it," Laxus said like he was talking about a grocery run.

"I expect nothing less from the grandson of Makarov Dreyar," he said.

Instantly the tension in the room skyrocketed and Lir glanced at each of the Thunder God Tribe to find them all wincing like the curator had just gravely insulted Laxus. And based off the absolutely incensed scent coming off him, he must have. His face was still neutral but the hormones produced by his emotions betrayed him, at least to her.

"We'll have it done in no time," Freed said, cutting through the unease.

With that, they bid Rechal farewell and exited the building, Laxus still stewing in frustration. Night had fully set in and, even with the plentiful streetlights, Lir's sensitive eyes dilated painfully after stepping out of the sterile brightness of the museum. For a moment, none of them moved, all looking to Laxus for direction.

"Let's go, we need to be rested for tomorrow," he said, not casting any of them a glance.

He started off down the road and they followed behind him. The Thunder God Tribe exchanged a knowing look between them; they'd been through this situation before. Freed walked up beside Laxus while the Bickslow and Evergreen fell slightly behind, Lir matching their pace. But her enhanced hearing could pick up everything the two men said.

"Laxus, I don't think Rechal meant anything by it. It was just an offhand comment," Freed said.

"It won't be a day too soon when the old man retires," he said, practically spitting his words. "Because once I take over there won't be any more offhand comments."

Lir restrained a baffled expression, forcing a neutral face as to not draw attention to her confusion. He _wanted_ to take over Fairy Tail? Was he going to take over when Makarov retired? She wasn't sure how the guild master selection process worked but she couldn't quite believe Makarov would hand the guild to Laxus when Gildarts, Mirajane, and Erza were around. At least, she hoped he wouldn't because she didn't think she'd make it if he purged the member roster. She also couldn't imagine him running a guild, he wasn't exactly around much. But she kept her mouth shut, mildly terrified to know anything else about it.

They continued on to the inn - the Spring Oak Hotel - and retreated to their rooms for the night, Laxus, Freed, and Bickslow in one and Lir and Evergreen in the other.  
"It's nice to have another girl around here, especially since I don't have to share a room with those animals now," Evergreen said, tossing her bag onto the bed by the window.

She sounded less actually bothered by them and more like an irritated sister, giving her the sense that the group had been working together for a long time. Lir set her own bag down next to the other bed and sat on the edge of the mattress to unlace her boots.

"I'm going to use the shower first if you don't mind. I've been feeling gross ever since we got off the train," Evergreen said, already moving towards the bathroom.

"Go ahead," Lir said.

A moment later the shower turned on and the muffled sound of Evergreen humming floated through the walls. Lir rifled through her backpack until she found a leatherbound book, tied closed with a rough cord. The cover looked brand new next to her other one with the Vulen Empire notes. She untied the cord and scribbled a few notes about the mission - the team, the client, what they were after - before filling the page with the seal of the Royal Institute museum, a few designs of what she thought the sword might look like, and attaching her train ticket with a paperclip. When the shower shut off she had devolved into covering the borders of the page in random filigree designs. Evergreen emerged in a cloud of steam wearing a cute set of silky, purple pajamas.  
"So tell me, why did you join Fairy Tail? No offense but it seems like you'd be better suited for a treasure hunter guild," she said suddenly.

Lir shrugged. "Well, I almost did but Mira intercepted me and convinced me to at least think about it. I talked to Makarov and he sold it to me."

"Let me guess, he told you the guild is one big family?" she asked with a heavy dose of disdain.

"Er, something like that," she replied, scratching the back of her head.

Evergreen rolled her eyes. "Of course."

"Fairy Tail is a strong guild," Lir countered.

"It could be a lot stronger if Makarov wasn't so set on keeping all the _weak _mages around."

"Isn't it better to have a variety of mages, even if they aren't that strong? It's not like there is a limit to how many can join," she said.

"Yeah, but our reputation suffers. When you have idiots like Natsu and Gray running around everyone knows us as a destructive, careless guild," she said, wheeling her wrist in the air.

Lir hadn't thought of that but it didn't seem like Laxus and his team were exactly struggling to find jobs. Evergreen wrapped her long, brown hair in a towel while Lir gathered her own pajamas and then walked to the bathroom. Steam blocked out the mirror and an assortment of Evergreen's cosmetics covered the countertop but she barely stopped on her way to the shower, stripping out of her clothes as she went.

She cranked the heat as high as it would go and stepped into the water. For several long moments, she just stood and let the scalding water run down her body and saturate her hair. The water was hard and full of minerals, likely from an old pipe, but it was water and helped to soothe her frayed nerves. It took her back to her time with Oceanus and gave her something to ground herself with. She survived dragon slayer training with an actual dragon, she could survive one mission with Laxus. Hell, she survived getting tattoos at what was - in retrospect - far too young an age for such things. She looked down and twisted and turned to get a good look at them. The tattoos were less individual designs and more of a full-body piece; thin, swirling lines in a robin's egg blue wrapped around her whole body, coiling up her arms and legs, two pinstriping up the left side of her torso. Oceanus said they made her more adapted to being underwater, but now they mostly just served as a connection to her mother much like Natsu's scarf was to Igneel.

Eventually, she decided she had stood there reminiscing long enough and quickly washed her hair and body, rinsed, and shut the water off. She slid on soft, cotton shorts and a tank top before leaving the muggy bathroom, scrunching her hair to keep the curls from turning to frizz when they dried.

"Hey, why did Laxus get so angry in the museum earlier?" she asked, unable to stop the question from tumbling out.

Evergreen pulled her lips together in a tight line and shook her head. "People refer to him as Makarov's grandson constantly, as if that's what makes him powerful. They never recognize him for his own abilities."

"Oh, that's got to be really annoying," Lir said, sitting down on her bed.

"You have no idea, it's been going on for years," she said, sitting up and crossing her legs. "You'd think at some point the Lightning Dragon would supersede who he's related to but sometimes it seems like people are just attributing Laxus to Makarov's legacy rather than his own."

And there was the source of Laxus's frustration with Fairy Tail and why he wanted to take over and make it stronger - it was a surefire way to get out from under Makarov's shadow.

"Have you guys ever thought about leaving Fairy Tail? I'm sure any other guild would love to have you," she said.

"Oh that's a whole other can of worms," Evergreen replied, waving her hand in the air to dismiss the notion.

Lir decided not to push the issue, she was tired and didn't think she could deal with some bizarre rationalization as to why Laxus couldn't strike out on his own. Both girls settled into their beds and shut the lights off.

"Goodnight," Evergreen said.

"Goodnight," Lir replied.

Lir slept restlessly, barely feeling like she fell into unconsciousness at any point, so she was grateful when Evergreen started to get up sometime before dawn. The lake was barely an hour walk out of town so they were able to pack smaller bags, just the necessities for dungeon crawling, and head out, meeting the guys in the hallway. They beat the sunrise out of town and set a quick pace for the lake, which Lir appreciated; once they got to the business end of the mission she could actually put her skills to good use.

It took them another hour to reach the lake, the sun having cleared the hilly horizon along the way. Dense trees pressed right up to the shoreline everywhere she could see and the hills around them shielded the water from most wind, creating a glassy surface. She took a deep breath and let the moisture-laden air fill her lungs. It was an underwater temple, it couldn't be more up her alley. She slipped her backpack off before pulling out her dive gear belt, which was affixed with a shot line, lacrima lantern, and a few tools.

"Hey Evergreen, could you hold this?" she asked, handing her the bag.

"Um, sure," she said like she'd been handed a dirty sock.

She walked right into the lake but only made it thigh deep before Laxus stopped her.

"Where the hell are you going?" he asked.  
"I need to scout it out first," she said, her cheeks turning red for no good reason beyond being under his scrutiny.

"What's there to scout out?" Laxus demanded. "We know where the temple is. It'll be faster if you just take us with you."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to swim through unexplored, enclosed spaces? Especially so deep down?" she asked, bordering on demanding herself. "It is _so _easy to get lost in places like that."

"She has a point, Laxus," Freed said.

Lir cast him a grateful glance which he returned with an almost imperceptible nod. Laxus on the other hand looked annoyed and let out a sigh.

"Fine, be quick."

She didn't hesitate and ducked under the water before diving down with a powerful kick. The water was fairly clear so the sunlight reached a good ways down but not far enough to reveal the temple. Small, silver fish flitted around in schools broken up by the occasional largemouth bass or pike. She swam further down, the pressure mounting and the water growing colder but feeling more at ease than she has since she woke up the previous morning. Eventually, the water grew too dark for even her to see so she cast her single reliable ocean magic spell.

"Bioluminescence!"

Her voice cut through the water and the spell cast, making her tattoos glow and giving her about twenty feet of vision. She fired a blast of water out behind her and shot forward, cruising like a dolphin to the bottom of the lake. Once the long tendrils of freshwater seaweed came into view, she drifted to a stop. She flared bioluminescence harder and created a bigger field of vision but it only revealed empty water. Of course, it wouldn't be that easy. She shot another blast of water and continued on parallel to the lakebed.

With her speed, she was able to cover a lot of ground quickly and it wasn't long before she started to see carved stone on the ground. It grew more densely packed until it formed what was distinctly a cobblestone road. Several minutes of following the path later the base of a huge structure came into view and she floated to a stop again. Water had worn away most of the fine details, leaving behind the essence of a temple covered in algae and moss. Fish swam in and around the support columns and she noticed a few monstrous sturgeons and catfish near the lakebed, longer than she was tall. They likely wouldn't be the biggest things around. She swam closer, her tattoos casting a blue light over the building and revealing that the main structure seemed to be sealed off. No open windows or doorways allowed her to see inside. She blew out a stream of bubbles in relief, she couldn't hold an air bubble for five people long enough to get through the monster of a temple.

_Now to find a way in. _

She kicked around to the side of the temple, scanning for anything that might let her inside. The lack of obvious entryway gave her hope that it wasn't flooded but also got her a little nervous that she'd have to cut her way in and then they'd be in a time crunch to get the sword and get out as it filled with water. But the Vulen architects usually had some escape tunnels or emergency air vents in their designs, with any luck one would still be intact. She kept swimming until a hole in the ground caught her eye and she moved to get a better look. At first glance, it looked like a catfish hole as it was jagged and covered in moss, but as she got closer she saw that it was far too circular to be natural. Still, anything could be hiding in there.

"Water Dragon's Breaker!" she shouted, shooting a blast of water into the hole.

Sediment billowed up around her but nothing emerged. Regardless, she hesitated, it was one thing for her to swim a few hundred feet down as her magic provided her resistance from the enormous pressure, but cave diving was just as dangerous for her as it was for anyone else. The risk wasn't in being physically able, but in getting out and no amount of dragon slayer magic could mitigate that. Oceanus had beat into her head that any air-breathing creature, no matter how powerful, could become disoriented, get lost, and drown in underwater caves. Despite knowing that it was just a tunnel carved by the architects, she couldn't overcome such an ingrained rule from her childhood and unclipped her line from her belt. She tied one end around a log embedded in the mud before diving into the hole, letting it unwind as she went. The tunnel wasn't tall enough to stand upright in and the walls were smooth and covered in algae and after a hundred or so feet opened up into a small, rectangular pool. She kicked off the ground and popped her head out of the water, sucking in a deep breath, the air stale and muggy.

She was in a small room no bigger than a broom closet, with a narrow hallway cutting into the opposite wall. She climbed out of the water and took a second to catch her breath. The blue light from her tattoos filled the space and really didn't help the centuries-old temple feel less desolate. She got up and found the hallway dead-ended in what was hopefully the backside of a hidden panel. She knocked her knuckles against it and her ears picked up the faintest echo on the other side - an open room.

For a moment she contemplated opening it herself but decided she would rather not risk fighting a potential monster alone, so she jumped back in the water and began her trip out and to the surface. A non-water mage would have had to slowly decrease their depth to avoid a fatal case of the bends but she was able to propel herself up quickly, only feeling the warmth return and pressure ease off. With a final blast of water downward, she shot herself through the surface and into the air. She landed with a splash and cruised the rest of the way to shore.

"Took you long enough," Bickslow said.

"I found a safe way in," she said, ignoring his comment.

"Is the temple flooded?" Freed asked.

She shook her head. "Not as far as I could tell."

They gathered up their backpacks and walked up to the water's edge, all looking at her expectantly.

"Ok, so, it's very deep so it's going to be pretty cold. Also, please don't go outside the bubble. I'm pretty sure the pressure would just kill you," she said.

Her heart started pounding and her gut clenched as she turned to Laxus specifically. She had to tell him but the terror that he would ridicule or ignore her threatened to choke her. "And, Laxus? Try not to use your magic until we get in the temple, you might electrocute us."

"Fair enough," he said with a shrug.

Lir nodded before plugging her nose and trying to blow air out like she was popping her eardrums, and the water around her pulled back in a large ring. The others stepped into the bubble and she led them down under the water. They packed in tight around her, understandably nervous about the lake closing in around them. Fish parted around the sphere and the aquatic plants collapsed into squishy piles as they lost the support of the water. Evergreen was unhappy about all the mud and Freed reminded her that he had said to wear practical shoes.

Eventually, they reached the depth sunlight couldn't and it seemed they were walking into a void rather than water. Thankfully for her magic reserves, they broke out the lacrima lanterns, lighting up the lakebed with soft, yellow light. The pressure of the entire lake over their heads was starting to wear on her, keeping the bubble up required more and more power as they went. She could make it to the escape tunnel for sure, but she was going to be more tired than anticipated.

When the temple came into view the lacrima lanterns only lit up the bottom twenty or so feet of the structure but they still gawked at it.

"Holy shit it's huge!" Bickslow exclaimed.

"Huge! Huge!" his puppets chanted.

"This has to be one of the best-preserved Vulen ruins there is," Freed said. "It's amazing the water hasn't eroded more of it."

Lir continued walking, wanting to put the bubble down sooner as opposed to later. Sweat beaded on her forehead despite the frigid temperature and her legs felt full of lead. She could almost feel the relief of not burning ethernnano constantly until they reached the tunnel opening and found an enormous fish, twice as long as she was tall, hovered over the hole.

"Oh no," she muttered.

"What?" Laxus asked, turning around.

She pointed at the problem. "That thing's a sheatfish and it's blocking the way in."

"You have water magic, just push it out of the way," he said.

"Do you want me to drop this air bubble?" she asked with more sass than she meant. "Plus, if that thing gets in here it _will_ bite someone in half."

She bent over, resting her hands on her knees, and tried to catch her breath. There was a good chance if she took even a weak pot shot at it the bubble would collapse and the weight of the lake would kill the others. That, or she would only piss it off and it would hurl itself into the bubble and shred her with its razor teeth.

"Bickslow," Laxus said.

Bickslow chuckled and lifted up the visor of his helmet. "You got it."

Lir had never seen his whole face before and was, for some reason, surprised he had a tattoo of a human figure down the bridge of his nose. If anyone in the guild had a face tattoo it was going to be the guy who got his guild mark on his tongue. His eyes lit up neon green and the sheatfish grew dark with a magic aura before turning away from them and swimming off into the darkness.

"Thanks," Lir said.

She lead them up to the tunnel entrance where they gathered around it. The dark hole looked like a tear in reality, like nothing existed on the other side, and even though she had been in it earlier it still unsettled her.

"You want us to jump in a dark hole at the bottom of a lake?" Evergreen demanded.

"That's the easiest way into the temple. Otherwise, we're going to have to cut through the walls and risk flooding or collapsing it," Lir said.

Laxus and Evergreen didn't look convinced and she had no idea what Bickslow was thinking behind his helmet, but Freed must have believed her.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" he said. "That sword isn't finding itself."

His seeming faith in her quelled some of her self doubt, giving her a kick of motivation. She plugged her nose and tried to force more air out which expanded the bubble, clearing all but the bottom foot of water from the tunnel. Freed dropped into the hole and Bickslow quickly followed with his dolls. Evergreen gave a high pitched whine before gingerly lowering herself down. Lir swallowed and looked up at Laxus. They shared a look - she was unable to even glean what he was thinking - before he cocked his head back in a single nod, gesturing for her to go in first. She responded with what must have looked like the most nervous nod possible and hopped in. Once Laxus joined them Lir shrank the bubble to a manageable size and they pressed forward.

AN: This chapter wound up pretty beefy lol

Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


	3. Dungeon Crawl

Their footsteps echoed off the vaulted ceiling as they walked into the enormous central hall of the temple. Bickslow let out a low whistle while Lir tried to restrain her excitement. Everything was so well preserved and seemingly untouched, they very well could be the first people to enter the temple in centuries. The lack of dust that was typically covering every surface in an unexplored ruin was odd but she supposed that it was due to the fact it was entirely underwater. She pressed her hands together in front of her chest to keep from bouncing off the walls.

"Start looking for anything that'll point us to the sword," Laxus said. "And don't wander too far, stay in line of sight."

Lir bounded over to an elaborate structure in the middle of the hall - six pillars covered in vertical lines of ancient symbols, each with a large, gray crystal embedded just above her eye level facing towards the center. The pillars and the circle of stone inside them were a different, lighter stone than that around them. She couldn't really read the dead language but she could recognize some of the words and started scanning for anything that could help them. The others spread out to scour the room, leaving only the sound of the flowing water outside. After enough time for Bickslow to get bored and start fiddling with any artifact, he could get his hands on had passed Lir finally found something she recognized.

"Aha, this is a temple of Akemis, the Vulen god of death," she announced, tapping a group of three symbols.

"The god of _death_?" Evergreen demanded.

"Don't worry, he's more about death as a concept, a natural part of life, not murder and suffering," she said.

Evergreen folded her arms across her chest and hunched her shoulders. "Still."

Freed approached her and leaned in close to the carvings. "Can you decipher any of the other words?"

"No, I just know some of the gods and a few people. I can't read Vulen, that's Levy's department," she replied.  
"Hey," Laxus called out, summoning the others to him.

He stood in front of a distinctly door shaped carving in the wall but lacking in any opening mechanisms. He pushed on it to no avail.

"We could just blast it open," Bickslow said.

"Hang on, there's a button right here," Lir interjected.

She reached over and pressed a carved square in the wall and the door parted in the middle and slid into the walls, revealing a staircase descending deeper into the lakebed. Besides the overwhelming dampness it looked to be mostly dry but they would have to go down to see if it hadn't been flooded or caved in. Laxus lifted his lantern and started down.

It was about thirty steps before the floor was level again and opened up into a modest-sized chamber without an obvious exit. There was likely a safeguard check or trap in the room. In the center stood a statue of a beautiful woman dressed in a flowy robe and whose loose, long hair billowed in the nonexistent breeze. She braced a vase against one hip, pouring water into the pool below her, and her other arm extended out to hold up her palm as if gesturing for someone to stop.  
"Hmm, that's odd," Lir said.

"What?" Laxus asked.

"This temple is for Akemis, but this is Raenta, the goddess of women and fertility," she said, gesturing at the statue.

"Does it mean something that her statue is here?" he asked.

She rubbed her chin. "I'm not sure. Any ideas, Freed?"

"One of her aspects is motherhood, it could be that she is here to watch over mothers and children that die in childbirth. I imagine there is a statue of the warrior god here as well," he said, walking closer to Raenta.

Lir stepped into the pool to get a better look but nothing unusual jumped out at her. It was a basic, stone statue with a plain crystal in her chest. She was stumped until she made it back to the front and examined the open palm to find an impossibly fine carving of a magic circle.

"Oh! Evergreen, put your hand against hers. If it is a worthiness spell you should get it no problem," she said.

"What? Why?" Evergreen asked.

"If this is a worthiness check you want someone who matches up with their domain, like for the god of the harvest you'd want a farmer or a plant mage. And I don't exactly see the rest of us pleasing a goddess of femininity as much as you would," she replied.

Lir was the only other one who should even bother trying but it was blatantly obvious which of the two had more femininity in one arm than the other had in her whole body. Evergreen stepped forward to the edge of the pool and placed her palm against that of the goddess. The crystal on Raenta's chest lit up and then a panel in the back of the room slid open, revealing another staircase.

"It worked!" Evergreen exclaimed.

She looked delighted and walked with a bounce in her step as they made their way downstairs. As they entered the next room, identical to the last with another statue in the center, Lir wondered how many they would have to go through. Hopefully not the entire Vulen pantheon.

"Looks like you were right, Freed," she said, gesturing at the statue.

It depicted Thilos, the warrior god, as an androgynous figure in simple armor, standing at attention, holding the hilt of a sword over their heart and the other arm outstretched just like Raenta's.

"Fascinating, it seems that the Vulen's depiction of their warrior god reflects their tradition of letting men and women fight. It appears neither male nor female," Freed said.

"Oooh, that's a good point," Lir said. "That could explain why they have a god of masculinity as well. For most other cultures in this time period, the warrior god and the male god were usually the same deities."

"Alright, nerds, let's get a move on," Bickslow said.

Freed scoffed. "You do understand the cultural significance of where we are, don't you?"

"Seriously, there aren't any depictions of Thilos _anywhere,_" Lir added. "This a huge deal."

"Neeerrrrrds," Bickslow teased.

"Alright, alright, calm down," Laxus interjected.

He didn't wait to see if they actually would stop, and to his credit they did - even Lir felt compelled not to fire off a retort at Bickslow - and stepped up to the statue. Without any pomp or circumstance, he put his hand to Thilos's and a door at the back of the chamber rumbled open. He strode right to it and down the stairs, leaving the others to scramble after him.

_He certainly doesn't waste any time. _

The staircase opened into another chamber and they descended into a larger room made of darker stone with a peculiar, musty scent. In the center sat a kneeling statue of Akemis who held the sword out, offering it to whoever made it to him.

"This seems oddly simple," Freed said.

"Yeah, wasn't this an SS-Class mission?" Bickslow asked.

All five glanced around the room, suddenly suspicious of the lack of any obvious traps or obstacles.

"Do you hear that?" Laxus asked.

"Hear what?"

"That ticking sound," he said, turning around.

Lir strained her ears until she picked up the faintest of ticking coming from somewhere in the walls. "I hear it. Where's it coming from?"

A time bomb seemed incredibly advanced for an ancient civilization and she didn't smell any combustibles.

"I can't tell. Everyone back to the stairs," he ordered.

But the second they started moving, panels on every wall retracted into the ceiling and piles and piles of _bones _poured out.  
"Oh," was all Lir could manage.

Bleached white bones of every size, type, and shape scattered across the floor. Complete, human skulls dotted the piles, adding to the macabeness of the scene. Before any of them could react further the bones began to rattle and tremble and then moved of their own accord, at first traveling in seemingly random directions but after several seconds it became clear that they were reforming into complete skeletons.

Laxus scoffed. "That's it?"

_That _was a room packed to the brim with skeletons, barely any room between each of them, at the bottom of a lake. She didn't want to know what he considered to be a problem. The front of the army stepped forward prompting a chain lightning spell from Laxus that dropped the entire line.

"Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!" Evergreen called.

A flurry of golden needles tore into the next line and Freed made quick work of the ones trying to force their way forward with his sword.  
"Water Dragon's Breaker!"

She hurled it at the cluster of skeletons approaching her but it only knocked them back, the water just passing through their bodies. Clearly a straightforward approach wasn't going to cut it.

"Water Dragon's Water Spout!"

Magic circles opened up on the floor beneath them and unleashed geysers of water, blasting them into the ceiling with enough force to shatter them and send their bones flying. She cast several more water spouts, breaking up groups of skeletons before nearly all of them had been dealt with.

"Battery Formation!" Bickslow shouted.

His dolls rapid-fire body slammed the remaining skeletons until they broke apart. The room was scattered with bones again, but this time they remained still after several moments of silence. Lir let out a sigh of relief, her fears of facing off with an eldritch monster seemingly put to rest.

"Well that was much simpler than expected," Freed said.

"Yeah, I guess you two nerds were worth your salt after all," Bickslow teased.

Evergreen flung her arms over her head. "Oh don't start that again."

"Doing research on the context of the mission does not qualify as "nerdiness," you're just woefully unprepared," Freed retorted.

Lir caught a hint of a good-natured grin on Laxus's face as he walked over to Akemis's statue, evidently entertained by his teammate's antics. Now that the job was done he could relax, or so it seemed. Just as he lifted his hand over the hilt the room began to rumble and they all froze. Lir's eyes shot to the ceiling, prepared to see it start coming down.

"Are they reforming again?" Bickslow demanded.

She dropped her gaze back to the ground to find the bones rattling. Then they started pulling towards each other, but this time instead of forming individual skeletons they continued to pile on top of each other, swarming into a singular mass.

"It's a skeletal horde!" Freed shouted over the clattering of bones.

"What?" Laxus demanded.

The entity swung an appendage and they all leaped back. It continued to reshape and draw bones onto its body, growing larger by the second and filling all the space in the chamber.

"Fall back!" Laxus ordered.

They bolted for the door, Laxus letting the others go before him despite the fact he got there first. But the bones continued to spill into the hallway, writhing in grotesque, unnatural movements. They didn't wait to see if it would follow them and continued tearing back to the main hall.

"What the fuck is going on?" Bickslow shouted.

"It's one entity that has possessed every bone it can get ahold of. It was a hivemind

before we destroyed them all," Freed said.

"Who cares what it is? How do we kill it?" Evergreen demanded.

"Whatever we do, do it carefully or we're bringing the whole lake down on our heads," Lir interjected.

"Stay calm," Laxus ordered. "We take it apart piece by piece until there's nothing left for it to reform with. Focus on precision."

The others nodded and braced for the creature to catch up. Lir sucked in a deep breath, trying to reign in her nerves, she'd never fought anything like a skeletal horde. She was used to other people and beasts not eldritch monsters from her nightmares. The instant it emerged they launched a volley of spells at it and it warped its body to avoid the onslaught before spilling into the open. They backed up as it formed into a horrifying, arachnid-esque shape with a central mass supported by several gnarled limbs. A skull-like face formed out of the assorted bones, complete with jagged teeth and dark, hollow eye sockets.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" Laxus shouted.

The tendril of lighting hit a joint between the limb and body, making it stagger. Bickslow followed up with Salvo Formation - his dolls fired bolts of neon green energy one after the other - and Lir with a Water Dragon's Riptide.

The monster screeched and swung one of its arms, making them all jump back. It let its form dissolve into a puddle and spread with alarming speed across the floor. Laxus, Evergreen, and Freed launched into the air with various spells, which Bickslow and Lir lacked and were consequently knocked down and overrun with bones. Lir shrieked and tried to cover her head as they pummeled her.

In a panic, she cast the first spell that came to her. "Water Dragon's Water Spout!"

The magic circle opened beneath her and the water blast launched her into the air and flung bones in every direction. Evergreen snatched her out of the air, thankfully able to support them both with her wings. Bickslow grabbed his dolls which yanked him off the ground and out of the writhing bone pit.

"Thanks," Lir said.

"Don't mention it," Evergreen replied.

Then the bones pulled together into a giant pillar, rearing up like a snake and getting dangerously close to the ceiling. Lir's heart hammered at the sight, it was just something that shouldn't be.

"Lightning Dragon's -" Laxus started to call but the horde was much quicker than expected.

It swung itself like a whip and smashed Freed and Laxus into a wall, making the temple quake. Lir knew it was going to come back around for her and Evergreen and her broad, purple wings wouldn't be quick enough to evade it.

"Water Dragon's Blue Streak!"

They both began to glow blue and Evergreen rocketed forward as she dodged its second swing and they knocked into a wall from the unexpected speed boost.

"Whatever that is, keep it up, we're going to give it some trouble!" she said.

"Got it," Lir replied.

Blue Streak was easy enough to hold and cast a second spell, so when Evergreen shot towards the horde she let loose a Water Dragon's Roar with her Fairy Bomb: Gremlin. It lunged at them but Evergreen zipped out of the way. Laxus and Freed recovered and pulled its attention back on them with more attacks. Bickslow cast a Battery Formation from the other side and the monster let out a distinctly frustrated shriek before taking its arachnid form again.

Evergreen landed, not wanting to encourage it back into the pillar form, and Lir let Blue Streak fade out. But the horde kept up the pressure and started swinging again. It was almost impossible to dodge since it changed shape as it moved so it knocked them around as they fired off spells with zero coordination.

Lir saw a swing coming but wasn't quick enough to dodge and took the appendage straight to the gut, hurling her across the room. For a moment she didn't feel anything - she couldn't see anything either with the room spinning - then she smashed into the wall and her body exploded with pain. The functional, instinct-driven part of her brain said she was trying to get to her feet, but none of her other senses could confirm it as they were swamped with firing nerves.

"You hanging in there, Sea Serpent?" Bickslow asked, suddenly next to her.

She coughed before hauling herself to her feet. "Yeah, yeah I think so."

"Good, we're regrouping. Stay close," he said.

She huddled in close to him to stay behind the shield his dolls formed as they inched their way to the other side of the room where Laxus, Bickslow, and Evergreen stood.

"Evergreen, try stone eyes," Laxus ordered.

"I have! It doesn't have eyes though, it doesn't work!" she exclaimed.

"Most of my Écriture spells don't have an effect either since I doubt it can feel pain," Freed added.

Bickslow and Lir reached the others without getting swatted again but the horde eyed the group, waiting for them to make a move and smack them around further.

"Alright, new plan. Lir, hit it with the most amount of water you can manage, saltwater if you can. Bickslow follow with Baryon Formation but keep it controlled, don't bring the place down. Ever and Freed go with whatever you think will cause damage," Laxus said.

Lir nodded, her stomach filled with butterflies at the thought of leading an attack. But it sounded like he wanted to use her magic to boost his so he wouldn't be too mad at her if she didn't do much damage. She sucked in a deep breath and let her magic course through her body to build up a charge for enough water to soak the monster. An aqua-colored magic circle opened in front of her, the largest she was comfortable summoning in an enclosed space.

"Water Dragon's Riptide!"

A torrent of water burst from the circle and knocked the horde back, drenching it in the process.

"Baryon Formation!" Bickslow quickly shouted.

The bright green blast hit the horde and sent bones flying everywhere. Laxus lunged forward, electricity crackling around his body, and went straight for center mass.

"Lightning Dragon's Iron Fist!"

He threw a thunderous punch that cleaved through the monster, breaking whatever hold it had on the bones and they sprayed like shrapnel across the temple. This time they waited several long minutes to be sure the fight was over but the tension in the room didn't dissipate. The bones began to rattle again.

"Oh, you have to be fucking joking," Bickslow muttered.

"Joking, joking!" his dolls chanted.

"How do we stop this thing?" Evergreen exclaimed with a mix of fear and frustration.

Breaking the bones seemed to be doing very little to stop it, they were really just giving it more things with which to shank them. The gears in Lir's brain spun at a frantic speed, trying to come up with a solution. They couldn't fight it until it was broken down to dust, their magic reserves would run dry first or they would bring the temple down on their heads with one too many large spells. And she needed to keep some magic energy on standby for the journey back up. There had to be another way to stop -  
_The sword!_

Akemis lorded over all aspects of death, including undead abominations like the one they were fighting. A sword forged to honor him _had _to have more effect on the monster. But she had to go quick, it was regaining its shape.

"Bickslow," she said. "Can you get me to the other side of the room?"

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

"I think we can use the sword to stop this thing," she said.

"Ahh, always thinking this one," he said. "Sure thing, grab onto my dolls."

She gave him a sideways glance, finding the idea of touching them unsettling. But he pushed the dolls into her hands with an excited grin.

"Hold on tight," he said.

The dolls rocketed into the air and she couldn't contain her scream. They carried her over the nearly reformed monster and let her down with a surprising amount of gentleness.

"Uh, thanks," she said.

"You're welcome, you're welcome!" they answered, bobbing excitedly.

She bounded down the stairs and whipped around the statues of Raenta and Thilos before booking it full tilt into Akemis's chamber. The position of his statue seemed to imply he wanted someone to take it like it was necessary to defeat the monster that had been in the room. At least, that's what she told herself as she unceremoniously snatched the sword from his stone hands. She hoped she wasn't invoking some sort of curse on herself by pissing off a god from a dead religion. Lifting the blade, she sprinted back into the main hall where the horde was trying its damndest to pound the others into the floor.

As it rotated she skirted around the outside of the battleground, trying to pick an ideal opening; she'd have to go at it head-on as there was simply too much _mass _around the back of it's head for the sword to reach the important bits. Aiming for an eye socket would be her best bet. She knew nothing about sword fighting, but she wasn't going up against Erza, she just had to jam it in the mass of bones.

"Laxus!" she shouted. "Give me an opening!"

He gave her a confused look when he saw the sword but he didn't argue and summoned a magic circle, from which he pulled a spear made of lightning.

"Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!"

He hurled it right at the center of the monster. Bones sprayed off it and it screeched. Lir dashed in right after, sword stretched out in front of her. A determined scream exploded from her chest as she plunged it into the horde's face, jamming it up to the hilt. It shrieked again, the sound so high pitched it felt like it punctured her eardrums, and recoiled. She stupidly let her guard down and caught another hit from one of its flailing arms, launching her across the room. A blast of water aimed at the ground slowed her fall just short of bone-breaking speed but the stone floor hurt like tanking a punch from Natsu.

The monster continued to convulse, thrashing with everything it had left. It let out a final, caterwauling shriek before simply exploding.

"Seawall!" Lir shouted.

The bone shards flew at such a high speed they embedded into the water and ricocheted off the walls. For a moment, none of them moved, listening for signs that the temple might collapse. But the room remained silent save the occasional drip of water. Lir let the seawall drop, washing away a circle of bone around her. All her muscles trembled and she had to focus to get her breathing under control, but after a moment she got to her feet, lightheaded but mostly fine.

"Lir, you're bleeding!" Evergreen exclaimed.

She looked down to see her left arm covered in blood from a substantial gash on her deltoid. She pressed her hand to the cut to stanch the blood flow but it quickly oozed between her fingers. If only she had paid more attention when Oceanus tried to teach her healing spells.

"Here, let me see," Laxus of all people said.

She gave him a skeptical look before pulling her hand away. He lifted his hand to hover over the gash and electricity sparked from it. He was going to cauterize it.

"It'll hurt, but it's the fastest way to stop the bleeding," he said.

"I've got nothing else," she said, gesturing to the wound. "Have at it."

He pressed his hand over it, making it sting, before sending a jolt of electricity into her arm. It burned deep inside the tissue, lighting her arm on fire from the inside out and her whole body jumped involuntarily, but she managed to keep her face to a mild grimace. When he pulled his hand away the cut was sealed shut with a pink scar and the skin around it was bright red. She shook her arm out, trying to dispel the pain.

"Thanks," she said.  
"Wow, you took that like a champ! Freed screams like a little girl when Laxus does that to him," Bickslow said with a hearty laugh.

"I do not!" Freed insisted.

"It's not exactly the most masculine sound," Evergreen said, putting a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"Anyone else?" Laxus asked.

"All good here, boss," Bickslow said.

"Then let's get that sword and get out of here," he said.

They all looked up, expecting to spot the sword amongst the bone wreckage right away, but they didn't. Odd, but she supposed it could have flown anywhere in the explosion. They spread out again, kicking through the bones and finding very few swords. After several fruitless minutes, Lir sighed and looked up, at this point figuring it could be embedded in the wall. But Laxus standing in the middle of six pillar structure caught her eye and she walked over.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Something about this thing is different than when we came in," he said.

"Huh?"

But right away she noticed that the crystals that had once been gray were now light blue. She reached up and tapped one with her fingertip.

"Oh, you're right. These were gray before," she said.

"You think it means something?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, I've never seen this type of structure before. It'd help if I could read more of these inscriptions."

She leaned closer to see if she could recognize anything else, but just then Laxus's lantern sputtered out, leaving them in near pitch-black darkness despite the lanterns the other three held.

"Oh for fuck's sake," he grumbled, smacking the lantern.

"I got it. Bioluminescence!" she said, her tattoos lit up and cast a blue glow around them

"That's not dragon slayer magic, is it?" he asked.

"Nah, it's deep-sea magic I think," she replied.

"You think?"

But she was cut off by a loud _thunk _followed by the floor beneath them dropping a good foot. They froze, arms held out for balance, Lir's eyes wide and Laxus's bewildered.

"What the hell was that?" Bickslow called out.

She lifted a foot to step out of the circle only for the floor to fall out from beneath them entirely.

AN:

Did you know that stanch and staunch are two different words? Because I didn't lmao

Please excuse my flimsy ass worldbuilding for the Vulen empire, I really didn't want to have to make up a complex culture for one mission.

Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


	4. Conduction

Chapter 4: Conduction

For a split second, Lir's brain refused to accept the reality of her situation; there was no way the floor dropped out from beneath her in an ancient temple at the bottom of a lake. Part of her thought it was a nightmare she would wake up from when she hit the ground. Laxus didn't seem to think so and got a hold on her, one arm around her waist and the other diagonal across her chest, before activating Lightning Body to slow their descent. It felt like when he cauterized her arm but a thousand times worse, every nerve in her body exploding at once. They hit the ground just below bone-breaking speed but plenty hard enough to feel like they'd been hit by a train. They both rolled on the floor, Lir groaning and Laxus sucking in sharp breaths between his gritted teeth. The shock of Lightning Body knocked out Bioluminescence so they sat in total darkness, she couldn't even see her hand inches from her face.

"What the fuck was that?" Laxus demanded.

"I don't know, I've never seen this before," she said. "The Vulen weren't known to have hidden chambers under their temples or anything."

"Fantastic," he grumbled. "Did you break anything?"

He groped blindly until his hand made contact with her bicep and gripped hard.

"No, I'm good," she said, reflexively grabbing his forearm.

"Well, at least there's that," he said.

She took a deep breath and let her magic flow again. "Bioluminescence!"

The blue glow flickered back on and revealed they were in a tunnel that looked manmade, what with the relatively smooth walls and level floor. It only continued on in one direction, her light fading out after about twenty feet and their backs against a wall.

"Freed! Bickslow! Evergreen!" Laxus called up the hole they'd fallen through but received only his echoing voice as an answer.

Lir's heart started hammering as the reality of where they were set in. Even though the cave wasn't filled with water, Oceanus's warnings about cave diving echoed in her head and she pictured them wandering until they starved to death.

"Chill out, we're not screwed yet," he said. "No way there isn't another way out."

They stood up and he shifted his grip to just above her elbow as if she was liable to dash off into the caves. It didn't bother her as much as she thought it would, at this point she'd rather have the extra assurance that he was watching out for her. Unnatural silence filled the tunnel, not the open, empty kind but the kind that filled their ears with its presence, constantly making itself known.

"Let's go then," he said, starting down the tunnel and pulling her with him.

After a few moments, he released her arm but stayed close. Despite his confident tone, he seemed just as unsettled as she did, anticipating _something _to happen. But the cave continued on and the silence pressed down on them. At least if something was approaching through the darkness they would be able to hear it a mile away.

"So," he started, making her jump. "What _is _that spell you're using?"

"Oh, it's deep-sea magic, I'm pretty sure," she said.

"You're pretty sure?" he pressed.

"Well yeah, no one ever really taught it to me so I'm not exactly sure about the nuance," she said.

"How'd you learn it then?" he asked.

"I, uh, I just kinda picked it up, you know?" she offered, knowing he wouldn't buy it.

"You could just admit that you bought some illegal magic book, I'm not gonna judge," he said.

"I didn't!" she exclaimed. "I think I just picked them up since they are so similar to my regular magic."

"You should really come up with a more convincing lie than that," he said.

She gave an indignant huff. "I spent a lot of time in the ocean as a kid, and lost magics are weird, who knows what happened."

"Don't tell me you have the same deal as Natsu, with the dragon parent thing," he prodded.

"I _am _a first generation dragon slayer, which is what that means," she said.

Laxus didn't answer and Lir didn't want to continue in the conversation in which he would doubt the existence of her mother. She didn't even think her friends at the guild really believed her, Warren and Mira sometimes looked at her like she was insane. It was hard to blame them, though, since it was a prevalent notion that dragons hadn't been seen in Ishgar in hundreds of years. She really shouldn't be contemplating that in their current situation as it tended to make her head pound in confusion; her mother left her in x777 and was a giant dragon, no way no one had seen her in centuries. How the hell was it possible?

"So what was your dragon's name?" Laxus asked.

She cast him a sideways glance, trying to decide if he was being genuine or just looking for more ammo. "Her name is Oceanus."

"You know, I always figured Natsu just got dropped on his head as a kid and hallucinated the whole dragon thing. I don't get that feeling from you, though," he said.

"Uh thanks?" she said, not really sure how to interpret the comment.

"Still don't know if I buy "just picking up spells." Maybe you've got a lacrima somewhere in there or something," he said, poking her side.

"That could explain why I know spells that I can't pull off in any meaningful way," she said.

"Like what?" He asked.

"Well, there's Stargazer, a really short-range electrical attack. It's so far removed from my other spells though that I can never really get it to work. I usually shock myself with it," she admitted, her ears turning red.

Laxus laughed, making her feel worse. "I'm not surprised. You don't have the personality for electric magic."

She bristled. "It's just that no one ever taught me! I wouldn't expect you to cast wind magic without help."

"Except I'd figure it out," he replied. "But if you really need a teacher I don't think you're going to find a better one."

She sighed and folded her arms. How could one person contain such a huge ego? But it would be stupid to turn him down if he was really offering to help.

"Ok, what do you suggest?" she asked.

"Go ahead and try it on me, I want to see what we're dealing with," he said.

She stopped dead. "You're joking."

"You're not going to hurt me, try it," he said

She gave him an unsure glance before holding a hand a few inches from his arm and searching deep inside herself for the spell. Gingerly, she reached for it, seeking the static-y, erratic magic buried under the rest in an attempt to pull it -

ZAP

An electrical shock coursed through her whole body and Laxus sighed.

"You're treating it too different from water spells. They are more similar than you realize," he said.

"_Similar_?" she asked.

"Lightning flows like water, but it's explosive so you have to channel it out in bursts," he said, pushing his hands away from his body to demonstrate.

She gave him a befuddled look. "What?"

"Come on, it's not hard. Imagine you're damming up your ethernano and then releasing it once enough has built up," he said. "But it does flow like water."

"Okay," she said with a good amount of skepticism.

"Just try it again but treat it like a water spell," he said.

She took a deep breath, held her hand over his arm and opened herself up to the spell like she would her others, inviting it out rather than pulling it. Stargazer's electricity hurtled through her and exploded out of her fingertips, giving Laxus a hearty shock. She snapped her hand away like she'd been zapped and looked up at him wide-eyed.

"There you go," he said, before starting to walk again.

She scrambled after him, still stunned that she'd pulled off Stargazer. He looked completely unfazed by the whole event like it was obvious that his instruction would fix her issue. And to his credit it had. She was starting to see why Bickslow, Evergreen, and Freed - all powerful mages in their own right - followed him; he exuded confidence and this sense that he could make anything work out. It even seemed like they'd get out of the tunnels if only for the fact she couldn't see him dying there. And so she followed right behind him.

After several minutes of walking in the heavy silence, the sound of their footsteps changed and picked up a slight echo.

"Hear that?" Laxus asked.

"Yeah, sounds like the tunnel opens up," she replied.

They picked up their pace, knowing their hearing was allowing them to detect a change that was still a decent ways off. However, there wasn't a change in scent like she'd been anticipating from a way out. Try as she might, she couldn't pick up the scent or sound of water which, in the worst-case scenario, would have allowed her to bubble them back to the temple entrance to pick up the others. The cave walls started to pull away from them and Bioluminescence lit up a downright bizarre scene before them.  
"What the hell is this?" Laxus asked.

Lir couldn't even begin to think of an answer, she'd never seen anything anywhere like it, never mind buried beneath a Vulen temple. It looked like a modern laboratory, complete with rows of sleek, granite tables and glass flasks and tubes covering every surface. Dread settled in her gut, nothing good could come of such a room existing.

"This isn't Vulen, I have no idea what this stuff is," she said.

"Great," he retorted with heavy sarcasm.

He walked forward into the room while Lir stayed glued to her spot. Everything felt incredibly wrong and she wanted nothing to do with it. Poking through the instruments scattering the tables wasn't going to get them out any faster. But Laxus rattled his way through the appliances, evidently determined to figure out what it all was.

"Can't we just keep going?" She asked.

"What, you of all people don't want to know what this is?" He replied, holding up a test tube of dark green liquid.

She shuddered the feeling of _wrongness _mounting with every passing moment. She didn't want anything to do with whatever the hell the room was.

"You're not going to faint are you?" He asked.

She shook her head but didn't feel entirely confident.

"Just get over here, it's just a bunch of old junk," he said, exasperated.

She wrung her hands and took a step forward. Her stomach churned and a voice in the back of her mind screamed at her not to go into the strange room.

"What the hell's wrong with you? You look like you're about to lose it," he said.

"I have no idea, this place is freaking me out," she said.

"We just fought a sentient pile of bones, nothing in here is even close to that," he retorted.

"I guess," she said, taking another step forward.

She swallowed hard and scurried across the room to Laxus, hoping to disguise her need to not be by herself as interest in whatever he was looking at. Test tubes and flasks filled with liquids of various colors and consistencies covered the counter and she was extremely grateful that all were closed.

"Looks like a potion-making lab," she said.

"How old do you think it is?" he asked, still sorting through the vials.

She swept her eyes across the equipment again. "That's the thing, it looks modern. The glass is too fine to be ancient and there isn't rust on anything."

"So someone discovered this temple, didn't tell anyone, dug out this cave and built a lab down here?" Laxus asked with obvious disbelief.

"Either that or the Vulens were time travelers," she countered.

"Illegal potion lab it is," he conceded.

Lir didn't touch anything, evidently not overcome with the same urge as Laxus, but carefully looked over the instruments, trying to decide what they all meant. The location seemed a little extreme for the average illicit potion maker so maybe the liquid mixtures before them were serious business. Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Lucy had just dealt with a flute that killed anyone that heard its song, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that they were looking at bioweapons. Laxus started to pick his way up the long counter and she shuffled along behind him, not wanting to be too far away.  
"How do you know so much about this stuff," he said, gesturing vaguely around the room.

She assumed he meant the temple and not the mysterious lab they stood in. "I took a lot of jobs in ancient ruins when I was a kid. If you do anything enough times I suppose you get good at it."

He gave her a skeptical look. "Fairy Tail isn't your first guild, is it?"

"Uh, no, it's not," she replied, scratching the back of her neck. "How'd you guess so fast?"

"No one hires a kid to go through ruins by themselves. I've seen how particular Freed gets when we have to get an artifact or something. No way anyone _pays _someone under eighteen to do it," he said. "You had to have been in a guild."

She chuckled awkwardly, she hadn't necessarily been trying to hide the fact but she didn't advertise it. If no one asked she wasn't going to bring it up.

"So which one was it?" he asked.

Her heart lurched. It didn't mean she _wanted _anyone to know about it either.

"Why? I left them a long time ago," she said.

"You're really bad at deflecting suspicion, you know," he said. "Now I think it was a dark guild or it's a touchy subject."

"It wasn't a dark guild!" she exclaimed.

"Buying illegal magic books and joining dark guilds, I never would've guessed that from you," he said sarcastically.

"It was Ochre Willow, alright?" she snapped.

He gave her an irritatingly cocky grin that told her his gambit to get information out of her had worked. She frowned back at him, trying to convey that she didn't care that she'd given it up, even though she did immensely.

"Ochre Willow, huh? That'd make sense why you know your way around ruins," he said, starting to pick through the equipment again.

Ochre specialized in jobs dealing with ancient oddities, although they took their fair share of regular jobs as well. But she'd put it behind her years ago, she didn't want to think about it now.

"Just don't go spreading it around," she said, annoyed with how desperate she sounded.

"I'm not exactly the gossiping type," he said.

Lir had no urge to talk anymore so the pressing silence returned, broken up only by their footsteps as they picked through the instruments. She wracked her mind for any clue as to what this all could be or why it was here. Who built it? When was the last time it was used? What was it used for? She poked at a vial with a silvery blue liquid swirling inside, much prettier than any of the dingy, murky fluids surrounding it. Against her better judgment - she had no idea if it was poison or not - she picked it up and unscrewed the lid. The scent of the ocean washed over her and not the perfumey, artificial version of candles but the real, salty, lively odor or the sea.

"That's strong," Laxus said. "What is it?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," she replied.

She put the lid back on and placed it back on its stand, despite the fact that she liked the scent she wanted nothing to do with a mystery potion found in a strange lab under a lake. There had to be something else that would give her an idea of what the lab was for. She turned in a circle, eyes sweeping across the tables until something caught her eye.

"That doesn't look good."

She walked over to a set of chains attached to the wall with big, thick links. Scattered around the floor were chunks of links that looked as though they had been ripped free from the rest.

"Something broke this," she said, looking up at him.

"Nothing could still be alive down here," Laxus said.

It sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as her because anything that wasn't dead already was going to be hard to kill.

"Let's get out of here," Laxus said. "I'm getting a bad feeling."

"Oh, just now?" She said with a bit more bite than she meant.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just go," he insisted.

She stood and they turned back to the tunnel to find a figure blocking their path. It was tall and masculine but not entirely human; long, spiny, lionfish type fins protruded everywhere bone was close to the surface of its scaly skin and it smelled like low tide and dead fish. She had no idea how they didn't hear it approach but its scent must have been masked by the bottle she opened. Its huge eyes were solid red - no pupil, iris, or sclera - and seemed to focus on them intently.

"Who the hell are you?" Laxus demanded.

It didn't answer him, it didn't even move. Her mind immediately jumped to the broken chains and if this _thing _had been what was locked up. Laxus seemed to be thinking the same thing because he balled his hands into fists and started to give off a stronger ozone scent. She let her magic flow and prepped Seawall and Breaker in case the creature made any sudden movements.

"Back off or this is going to get real ugly for you," Laxus said.

The creature seemed unfazed by his threat and its eyes lit up with a light blue glow and it snarled, revealing rows of pointy teeth.

"I said back the hell off," Laxus commanded.

The creature stepped forward and he backed up, pushing her with him.

"You ready to fight?" he asked.

She swallowed hard to squash the wobbliness in her voice. "Yeah."

"Try to stay back, I don't want to hit you too," he said.

"Got it," she replied.

The creature let out a rumbling growl and its spiny fins bristled. Laxus didn't wait for it to strike first and hurled a bolt of electricity at it. Somehow, it managed to evade the attack and lunged for him, clawed hands aimed at his throat.

"Lightning Dragon's Iron Fist!"

The creature took the punch right to the chest and the force launched it across the hall, but it sprung back to its feet like he hit it with a newspaper.

"Water Dragon's Breaker!" she shouted and hurled a blast of water at it.

It only staggered but now it was soaking wet. Laxus followed up with another bolt of electricity that made it howl in pain and recoil. It didn't go down though, much to Lir's dread. She had a decent reserve of magic energy left but she was starting to worry that she'd run dry before they made the journey back up. She would just have to trust that Laxus was as good as his ego implied. The creature gave an inhuman screech before summoning a magic circle and unleashed a blast of putrid, boiling water at them, forcing them to leap out of the way.

_Was that Sulfur Vent?!_

It was another of her mysterious deep-sea spells that she still really couldn't use, but the distinct rotten egg smell and scalding water lead her to believe it was the case. The creature tried to hit her with another and she ducked behind one of the stone counters. A loud crack echoed through the hall as Laxus shot another bolt of electricity at the monster, followed by a cacophony of clattering metal and shattering glass. After sucking in a deep breath she popped up and hurled a Breaker at it, knocking it back.

But Laxus had moved, he was no longer in front of her but off to her right, the same distance she was from the creature. It turned and dashed right at her.

"Oh fuck."

She hurtled over a counter but it nailed her with a blast of water and sent her crashing into a wall. Electricity crackled and echoed through the hall as she struggled to regain her feet. A spray of freezing water smacked her and pulled her back to her senses and she pulled herself behind one of the tables. Laxus was still hurling strikes of electricity at the creature, which it dodged with far too much ease. When he finally nailed it in the head, dropping it to the ground, he dashed over to where she was still taking cover.

"Alright, new plan," Laxus said.

"Oh, you wanna change _now?_" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. I need more space, if I cast any big spells down here I'll fry you too," he said.

"So, what? We make a break for it and hope there's a way out?" she asked.

He peeked over the counter. "More or less."

"For fuck's sake, more or less," she muttered.

"What? You don't trust me?" he asked in a tone that was way too lighthearted for their current predicament.

A few hours ago she may have retorted with an instant "no" but she was definitely buying into the mystique surrounding him now. If he said he just needed more space to beat this thing, she believed him.

"I trust you," she said.

"Good. When I say go, sprint for the tunnel and keep going, I'll be right behind you," he said.

He peered over the table again, searching for the creature. She heard it pacing back and forth, breathing with an agitated intensity. Her heartbeat picked up in anticipation.  
"Cover your eyes," he said.

"Uh, sure," she said, doing as he asked.

Laxus paused for a moment, waiting for an opening before the creature turned its gaze on him.

"Flash blindness!" he called.

A light so piercing filled the hall that some of it sliced beneath Lir's palms and into her eyes. The monster shrieked in pain and shattered more glass in its disorientation.

"Go!" Laxus shouted, pushing her.

She scrambled to her feet and took off at a sprint for the other end of the room where the tunnel shrunk down again. Laxus kept pace right behind her and a third set of pounding footsteps quickly followed them.

"What the hell is this thing?" Laxus huffed.

Lir didn't have an answer but she was certainly sick of it, especially considering it attacked them seemingly without reason.

"Water Dragon's Riptide!" she shouted.

She didn't care if she didn't hurt the thing, she really just wanted to knock it back to buy them more space. It worked and the monster flew back up the tunnel before crashing into the ground, flat on its back. Then, without warning, Laxus grabbed her wrist and shot them both forward with Lightning Body, lighting her up with pain again. When he dropped out of the spell the tunnel had opened, dumping them into a massive cave covered floor to ceiling with stalactites and stalagmites and a large, deep pool of water on the far side. Lir tumbled onto the ground, unable to control her body with all the electricity and fatigue coursing through it.

"I bet that's a way out!" she exclaimed, pointing at the pool.

"We're killing this monster here, I'm not fighting it in the water," he said.

He turned back to the cave in time to see a pair of glowing red eyes appear, looking like a childhood nightmare. The shadows peeled away from the creature as it walked forward at a terrifyingly casual pace. Lir got to her feet dreading the impending battle, which this would inevitably become compared to the slap fest in the lab; there was plenty of space for big spells in the cavern. But she swallowed hard and let her magic flow again, if Laxus was determined to end it right then she'd be damned if she sat by and did nothing.

AN: I have this idea that Laxus has this sort of cult of personality surrounding him which is why he is able to inspire such devotion from the Thunder God Tribe.

Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


	5. Pincushion

Chapter 5 - Pincushion

Laxus didn't wait to start the fight again and slung lightning bolts the second the creature was in the open. Lir choked, not sure what to do. He moved so quickly she could barely keep track of him, never mind stay out of his way. Rather than risk getting hit by one of his spells or worse, pissing him off, she moved to the side to get a clear shot.

"Water Dragon's Breaker!"

She slung a wave at it, knowing it wouldn't do much damage, but hoping it would boost his attacks. The creature retaliated with equal force, hurling high powered blasts of water mostly at Laxus while she kept to the back line. Little progress was made on either side until he vanished in a flash of light into Lightning Body. The split second in which she was open the creature slammed her with a cannon blast of boiling water, launching her across the room.

"Water Dragon's Riptide!"

She shot the blast behind her, countering her momentum and stopping her from colliding with the rough, rocky wall. Meanwhile, Laxus had closed the distance between him and the creature and was beating it with lightning fueled punches, driving it back.

But the fight changed pace in a split second and the creature hit him square in the gut with a narrow beam of water, slamming him into a wall so hard that stalactites fell from the ceiling and the stone cracked around him. Lir heaved a huge wave at it, staggering it and buying Laxus a moment. It turned its attention away from Laxus - still on the ground - and on to her and she swallowed the lump in her throat. For the moment, the fight was hers.

It led with Sulfur Vent which she sidestepped. She countered with a Water Dragon's Water Spout, but the geyser only snagged its arm. Then it lunged forward, attempting to rush her, and she shot a blast of water at the wall behind it, using the force to propel her out of the way. This dance continued for several long minutes, interspersed with the occasional direct attack from Lir, but water didn't seem to do much to hurt it.

Out of her peripherals she saw Laxus get to his feet, so she goaded the creature around so its back was to him. Even across the room she saw the wicked smile that crossed his face. In the blink of an eye he blitzed across the room and body slammed the creature, taking it totally by surprise. He hit it with a lightning bolt, making the cave rumble with thunder, and she nailed it in the face with a Waterspout, spraying water everywhere.

Laxus raised a fist, electricity jumping off it in arcs. "Lightning Dragon's-!"

But it vanished in a flash of blue light. He let out a frustrated grunt before casting the electricity out in a wide semicircle but hitting nothing.

There were an infinite number of invisibility spells, mages of every stripe and color of magic could learn them, including herself, so her mind jumped right to Amphipoda after seeing the creature use Sulfur Vent. She'd never managed to pull it off beyond the barest hint of translucense while it had vanished completely.

"Can you smell it?" Laxus asked.

"I can't pick it out," she said.

There had been too much movement for her to pinpoint where it was hiding, all three of their scents mingled together in a soup of useless information. But scent wasn't the only way to expose invisibility.

"Water Dragon's Steam Blast!"

She filled the room with a heavy fog that swirled with their breaths. A cloud near the cave entrance churned and they both shot spells at the humanoid hole in the mist, Lir's a near miss but Laxus's nailing it right in the chest, knocking it out of its invisibility. She dispersed the mist, shooting it back up the tunnel or forcing it to settle on the ground.

The creature stood stone still and glared at them. The hair on Lir's arms stood on end as Laxus put out an astounding amount of magic energy. In a suspiciously advertised move, it whipped a tendril of water at them, forcing them to dive out of the way. When they got back on their feet water rushed out of the pool across the room and up over their ankles. Lir and Laxus exchanged a horrified glance, was it trying to flood the cave? But the water surged up around them, forming a sphere and she had to question the thing's intelligence - it had seen her use water spells. Regardless, she shoved the water around her, ejecting both of them from the bubble. Lir rolled once and sprung to her feet just to see the creature engulf Laxus in the sphere again.

His shout was muffled by the water, but he drew forth a huge magic circle and generated an electrical storm around him, flinging scalding water out and filling the cave with blinding light. But the bubble remained intact. Lir's heart seized in terror, she had maybe two minutes to get him out. She spun on her heel to face the creature and found it wide open holding its arms over its head to support the bubble. In what was probably not the appropriate reaction she found herself miffed that it thought so little of her as to completely write her off.

She sucked in a deep breath, put her head down, and charged it. Her shoulder slammed into its gut and she ripped its legs out from underneath it, sending both them and the water bubble crashing to the ground. Pain exploded in her chest, stunning her and giving the creature an opportunity to throw her off. Then it rolled over and pounded her in the face with its fist, slamming the consciousness right out of her. When she came back around she found herself crawling away from it as it continued to approach her.

_I am having some really bad luck with fights recently. _

It raised its hand to cast a spell at her - making her flinch - when a lightning bolt struck it and hurled it against the cave wall. Laxus, soaked to the bone, was back on his feet and prepared to end the fight right then and there. He stalked towards it, evaporating its attacks with lightning and it stupidly didn't back down. Once in range he grabbed it by the skull and cast his spell.

"Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist!"

The creature shrieked loud enough to break glass before its eyes rolled back in its head and collapsed to the ground, dead. Laxus heaved a sigh of relief, the creature having been more trouble than it had any right to be. However, it apparently wasn't done causing problems for them because when he looked up he found Lir, flat on her back with a dozen long spines stabbed into her right shoulder and upper pectoral.

"Motherfucker," he stated.

She let out a groan and writhed. "Is it dead?"

"Yeah, fried it's brains," he said.

With every tiny movement the spines poked and sliced at things inside her and she couldn't decide if she wanted to cry or throw up.

"It doesn't look like any hit your lungs," he said, looming over her.

She shook her head. "It doesn't feel good though."

Her voice came out high pitched and whiny, only slightly better than the pathetic sobbing she was barely restraining.

"I can't imagine it does," he said with an emphasized control in his voice. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah," she managed.

She pressed her right arm against her torso, trying to limit its movement as much as possible but to no avail and she let slip a whimper. But she got to her feet and took a moment to gather herself, focusing on her breathing and just letting the pain be rather than holding on to it with a vice grip. Laxus hovered nearby, convinced she was about to keel over at any second. With a deep, slow exhale she lifted her head and took full account of the injury. The white and orange striped spines stuck into her skin and blood trickled out of the entry points. She pinched one between her fingers and yanked it out with a sharp pull, which stung like she had poured salt in it.

"Ugh, fuck," she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut and bending over.

The pain made her head spin and she still had more than she cared to count stuck in her shoulder. But she could almost feel the condescending comment building in Laxus's mind so she pushed out a sharp breath and began plucking them out as fast as she could. As she pulled the last one free her knees wobbled and she staggered, her head swimming in burning, stinging pain.

"I shoulda paid more attention when my mom tried to teach me healing spells," she mumbled.

Laxus followed her as she walked to the pitch black pool, still waiting for her to hit the ground.

"Can you manage this?" He asked.

"Yeah, let's just go quick," she replied.

She pressed the water away from them and they descended into the submerged cave. The bubble felt more like lead than air and wasn't nearly as big as she would have liked forcing them to walk nearly on top of each other, which was a necessity anyway as the tunnel was cramped and jagged. Settled silt made the ground slick and they had to duck and climb around juts of rock but for the time being there was only one way forward, any branching paths were little more than holes barely big enough to stick their heads in.

"You're burning ethernano like a brush fire," he said.

"I'll make it," she insisted.

"To the surface?" He asked.

"Yeah," she huffed.

Thankfully he didn't press on that topic further. But not enough time passed before he started picking at her for something else.

"I can see why you're stuck in B-class," he said.

"Who says I'm stuck?" she demanded.

"I do. You spend too much time dodging," he said. "And you waste a lot of ethernano doing it."

"I was trying to be cautious. If I went down you weren't getting out of there," she said, unable to keep the defensiveness out of her voice.

"Even if you're outclassed, you have to fight like you mean it. If you go into it thinking you can't win you probably won't," he said. "You weren't being cautious, you were holding back."

She didn't have an answer mostly because he was right. As soon as he said it the whole fight looked different in her memory. She could have done more when he had been stunned but she spent the whole time dodging because she had been convinced she didn't stand a chance. But what else was she supposed to do to an opponent against whom even Laxus struggled?

"So, what? I just go at it head on even when it's something leagues stronger than me?" she asked.

He shrugged. "For as much of an idiot as Natsu is, the reason why he wins so many fights is because he doesn't back off. Of course, that's also why he causes so much property damage."

For another moment they walked in silence, Lir mulling over his advice and Laxus trying to figure out how she wound up the only dragon slayer he knew of without what he supposed was a dragon-like aggressiveness. And he had seen both Cobra and Black Steel fight.

"If you want to get past just fighting grave robbing bandits you'll have to throw yourself at tougher opponents," he added. "Erza would probably babysit you if you asked."

She shook her head, trying to brush off the below the belt hit and take his suggestion to heart at the same time because, unfortunately he was both correct and an asshole. She had been playing it safe with the jobs she picked, usually sticking to the "water mage required" or ancient ruin exploration types. She didn't get stronger lifting the same amount of weight over and over again, she had to move up.

Finally, and much to Lir's relief, the cave gave way to the lakebed and they found themselves nearly a half a mile from the temple.

"Oh for fucks sake," she grumbled.

She picked up the pace as much as she could manage, not liking how quickly she was burning through the remains of her magic energy. She didn't just have to reach the temple, she also had to get everyone back to the surface.

_You can do it. Just don't stop. _

She barely noticed the schools of fish or the kelp that parted around them and just plowed forward until they made it back to the escape shaft. Somehow the hole looked worse than when it was unexplored, now faced with getting through it in her current state. She crouched near the edge, a jump was too high impact for her liking.

"Here," Laxus said, holding out a hand.

She took it and held on tight as she backed into the hole like she was descending a rock climbing wall. He let her drop the last foot before climbing down after her. At the other end of the tunnel he boosted her over ledge, on which she flopped like a fish in an effort to not aggravate her increasingly pained shoulder. She got to her feet when Laxus climbed over and followed him into the temple.

Their echoing footsteps drew sudden, shocked exclamations from Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow and they jumped into defensive stances, prepared to attack whatever came in until they realized it was Laxus and Lir.

"What happened to you two?" Freed exclaimed.

"How'd you get back here?" Bickslow added.  
"It looks like someone hid their illegal potion operation down there along with some gods forsaken monster that turned Lir into a pincushion," he said.

Lir gave a weak glare, not able to muster the energy for anything more.

"I killed it and we got out through a cave. Lir got fucked up pretty bad so we need to get moving," he said. "Did you find the sword?"

Evergreen held it up by the hilt. "Yeah, it wound up back with the death god statue somehow."

"We should let the Institute know. They'll likely need to enchant it to keep it from making its way back here," Freed added.

Now that Lir had stopped moving for a few minutes she could really take account of the damage; several spots ached from blunt force trauma and she had more than a handful of scapes that stung from her sweat. But the truly concerning thing was the nausea she was just now noticing. Could that vial she had opened contained poison that was just now kicking in? No, Laxus had a good whiff of it as well and he seemed fine.

_Oh no, it was the spines from that creature. _

She cut into whatever conversation the others had started. "Hey, uh, I should've mentioned this earlier but those looked like lionfish spines and they're pretty venomous. And I don't feel too good."

All four turned to her with various looks of concern, even Laxus for the briefest moment. But he was quick to put the mask of leadership back on.

"Like I said, let's get going," he insisted.

They hurried back through the tunnel as much as they could around Lir's decreasing pace. She couldn't expand the bubble big enough to let everyone go one at a time into the tunnel so they jumped together and she hit the ground like a sack of bricks. At the other end she had to climb on Bickslow's back after failing to get out with her one functional arm.

The surface of the lake seemed impossibly far away, sunlight barely discernible at their depth, and her ethernano was approaching fumes. It was going to be a bad time if she started suffering magic withdrawal on top of the venom. Laxus must have felt it as well and thought she wasn't going to be able to get them back to the surface because he swept her off her feet like she weighed nothing. She wasn't terribly surprised, it wasn't exactly his style to ask first, but it didn't mean she was happy about it.

"I can still walk," she said, unable to even muster a tone of indignation.

"Don't talk, just keep us from drowning," he said.

She gave a tiny groan and closed her eyes, focusing on keeping the bubble up. With each passing moment the effects of the venom spread through her body, her lips and tongue were going numb and her whole shoulder was swollen and inflamed. Time ceased to mean anything, she felt as though she were just floating in a void that battered her endlessly with fire-like burning and increasing disorientation. Thoughts of just wanting it all to be over reared their heads, but the others depended on her. She couldn't quit.

The relief when they broke through the surface felt like a huge weight lifting off her shoulders and she reflexively sucked in a deep breath, lighting up her chest with searing pain making her writhe and groan. Even though Laxus carrying her relieved her of most of her workload, the pressure on her shoulders and chest mounted to unbearable levels.

"Lemme walk," she said.

Her attempt at forcing insistence into her tone made her sound even more pained but Laxus did let her down. The world tilted around her and her whole arm burned like she was holding it in an open flame. They gathered their packs, Freed mercifully taking Lir's, before they started towards town. The idea of the walk back now undoubtedly taking twice as long made her want to cry but she couldn't muster the strength.

"Hey," she said, heaving out breaths between bits of sentence. "That thing down there, it used spells that I know."

"It knew Dragon Slayer magic?" Freed asked.

She shook her head. "The other spells. Sulfur vent. Amphipoda. Never met anyone that knew those before."

"You said that's deep sea magic, right?" he asked.

"As far as I know," she said.

"I thought it wasn't human?" Evergreen asked.

Laxus shook his head. "It wasn't. At least not by the time we got to it."

"Well, humans aren't the only beings that can utilize ethernano," Freed said.

"You think it was a demon or something?" Bickslow asked.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Laxus said.

"Oh man, does that mean I know demon magic?" Lir asked.

It absolutely did not mean that but her brain was swimming in so much venom that she couldn't remember that "demon magic" was just curses.

"You doing alright, Lir?" Evergreen asked.

She nodded far too vigorously for her actual condition. "You bet."

But the longer they went on the less she could lie even to her own addled mind. No amount of determination could overcome chemicals shutting down her muscles. She had no idea how far or for how long they had been walking when she just couldn't muster lifting her legs anymore. Her arms were completely numb and her head spun like she was a handle of vodka deep.

"GuysI'm not gonnamake it," she said, her words starting to slur together.

"Come on Sea Serpent, you can do it," Bickslow said.

She stopped and bent over, resting her hands on her knees. "I'm serious, Idon'tthink… I canmakeit."

She wobbled, trying desperately to stay upright, but the darkness engulfed her vision and she collapsed.

* * *

AN: Poor Lir, I couldn't have her go on such a high ranking mission without some sort of repercussion though.

Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


	6. Recoup

Chapter 6: Recoup

Lir had no idea what was going on as she started coming around, feeling as though she had dropped out of existence and was now clawing her way back. Flickers of a simple room with an open window and a gentle breeze reached her struggling consciousness. Then the harsh smell of antiseptic washed over her and she stirred, straining against her stiff muscles to sit up. She had to get up and figure out where she was instead of laying there like a sitting duck. But a big hand pushed her back down and it took her a moment to realize it was Laxus.

"Oh good, I'm not dead," she said, her voice hoarse and throat feeling like sandpaper.

"You were close," he said.

Her memory came back to her in bits and pieces, first the fight with the strange fish monster, then the bone monster, then the fact that the temple was at the bottom of a lake.

"We got the sword, right?" she asked.

"We did," he said, sitting back down in a chair by the window.

She let out a deep sigh of relief. At the very least the job was complete and she didn't have to tear her hair out over messing it up. However, that opened up space for her to feel terrible about wasting his time having to babysit her in the hospital. She risked a glance in his direction and found him watching her closely but with a neutral expression, rather than the angry one she'd been expecting. But now that their eyes were locked she couldn't make herself look away, mostly out of fear that he'd call her a wimp.

"I guess I should give you some credit. Whatever the hell that thing was, it didn't manage to kill you," he said.

She didn't know how to respond, never mind guess if that was an insult or a compliment.

"Have you ever seen anything like it before?" she asked.

He shook his head. "You said it knew magic that you did so I was hoping you'd have an idea."

Fog still shrouded her brain making it hard to think but she was confident she'd never seen anything like the creature before. It would have stood out amongst the limited list of exotic monsters she'd fought. A pounding built up in her head with increasing intensity until it felt as though someone was slamming a hammer between her eyes. She groaned and turned her head to press it into the pillow, trying to block the feeling out. Laxus stood up again and then she heard the sound of pouring liquid.

"Here," he said.

When she pried her eyes open she found him offering a glass of water. At first she thought he was messing with her somehow or was going to hit her with another snide comment. But he said nothing when she took it from him and his expression didn't change. She propped herself up with one arm and shakily lifted it, mustering an extraordinary amount of effort not to chug the whole thing at once but she drained it without choking. He took the cup and she collapsed back on the bed, the water dulling the pain in her head and shoulder. Her magic container began to refill, alleviating more of the exhaustion. She had been pushing empty which was probably why the venom messed her up so quickly, or at least as quickly as it would have messed up a non mage. If she'd been in better shape she probably would have been able to fight the effects longer.

"You bounce back quick," he said.

"You don't have to patronize me, you know," she said in a tone a bit more biting than she intended. It was hard not to sound annoyed when her whole body still ached from the venom.

"You think I would lie to make you feel better?" he retorted.

"No."

She hadn't really known him for that long but she could say with certainty he wouldn't do that. The room fell silent, Laxus watched out the window and Lir closed her eyes, allowing herself to drift off. She couldn't have been out for very long because the lighting was still the same when the door slammed open and she jolted awake.

"You're awake!" Bickslow exclaimed. "I knew you weren't going to die!"

"Bickslow!" Evergreen exclaimed, whacking his arm.

"What? You all were freaking out but I knew she'd pull through," he said.

The fact that they were all still there almost shocked her more than the fact that they had apparently been worried.

"You guys are still here?" she asked.  
"We weren't just going to leave you in a strange hospital," Evergreen said.

"Oh, thanks. I really appreciate it," she said, feeling her face going red.

Awkwardness weighed down on her chest like an anvil, being laid up made the power difference between them and her inadequacy all the more obvious. She braced herself before sitting up and was met with protesting muscles and a spinning head. Her shoulder burned and the nerves in her arm popped with stabbing pain but she squeezed her eyes shut and held onto her composure with a vice grip.

"How are you feeling?" Freed asked.

"Mediocre," she replied through her teeth. "But I'll live."

"When do you think you'll be up for going back to Magnolia?" Evergreen asked.

"I can go today if you guys want," she said.

She really didn't want to leave then but she didn't want to hold them up more. If Laxus could deal with violent motion sickness she could deal with her injuries.

"No, we'll wait 'til tomorrow," Laxus answered for her. "We don't need you dying on the train."

"I'm not going to die," she said.

"The old man is going to want to do a full debrief about this anyway, if you show up in worse shape it'll just piss him off more," he said, a harsh frown crossing his face. "He's already going to rip me a new one for that last fight."

The feeling of guilt surged again. If she hadn't nearly been killed they could have just filled out the paperwork and been on their way, now it would be classified as an incident. Maybe she could convince Makarov that the fight with the fish monster had been an accident and there was absolutely nothing Laxus could have done to prevent or avoid it. She certainly didn't blame him for it.

He got to his feet and straightened out his shirt. "We need to get going to find an inn."

The Thunder God Tribe filed back out the door, wishing her a good night as they went. Laxus stopped in the doorway and turned his hard gaze to her, making her chest seize with anxiety.

"Get some rest," he said.

She just nodded as he followed the others out, shutting off the lights and closing the door behind him. Despite having been unconscious for at least a full day she was exhausted. The effects of the venom still lingered in the form of burning pain radiating from her shoulder so she rolled onto her left side. Thankfully, sleep found her again easily and plunged her into the mercifully unfeeling void of unconsciousness.

The next morning she awoke when the doctor came by to change her bandages and test her vitals, which he said were recovering quickly. He claimed the effects of the venom should be completely gone within a day or two. Her body still ached and the wounds where the needles had stuck her burned like there were hot pokers in them, but she was able to get out of bed and dress herself before the others came to get her.

She kept up a chipper disposition as they made their way to the train station, not wanting to give Laxus a reason to hold them all back for another day. Once they were on the train Laxus's motion sickness overshadowed her and she took the opportunity to slouch down in her seat, her right arm clenched tightly to her torso, and close her eyes.

The trip dragged on like the train was chugging through molasses which only made the walk back to the guild worse. The people walking on the streets gave a wide berth, seemingly pushed away by Laxus's foul mood, like he was a shark swimming through a school of fish. When he threw open the front doors of the hall a hush blew through like a stiff breeze, Natsu must not have been immediately available to start a brawl. The only person not to balk at the dramatic entrance was Mirajane who just smiled pleasantly but even from across the room Lir could see it didn't reach her eyes.  
"How did it go?" she asked, clearly focusing on Lir's bandaged shoulder.

"Have we ever failed a job?" Laxus retorted.

A dark flicker that Lir had never seen before crossed Mira's face. "I know you completed it, otherwise I'd have filled out different paperwork. I asked how it went."

Lir winced, hearing that kind of bite from Mira was almost worse than from Laxus.

"It was fine," Freed cut in. "A little more trouble than we expected but nothing we couldn't handle."

Lir forced a grin, but she was good at faking so Mira let it go.

"Master wants to talk to you all about the job," she said. "I'd head back to his office now."

As they passed Mira gave her a sympathetic smile that made the nervousness in her chest dissipate slightly. If she wasn't worried for her then everything should be fine. She rolled her shoulders back, Oceanus's voice in the back of her mind telling her she hunched over when she was nervous.

_You fold in on yourself when you're scared, angelfish. You are trying to make yourself small and unnoticed. Stand up tall, face what frightens you head on. _

Besides, Makarov wasn't known to be mean unless you had knowingly done something stupid. And getting pummeled in a fight wasn't intentionally being an idiot.

_It's not, you're fine, you're fine. _

They walked into the guild master's office, a large room with a giant, bay window covering the far wall and floor to ceiling bookshelves on the others. Little knick knacks dotted the empty spaces and potted plants perched on every open corner. Makarov sat behind his massive, wooden desk which was littered with papers from clients, other guilds, and the magic council. He watched them all with a scrutinizing eye and it was hard to read what he was thinking even when he looked at her shoulder.

"I've been told there was an unexpected hitch in your job. Unusual for your team, Laxus," Makarov said.

"Is that what this is about? We've had plenty of weird shit happen before," Laxus replied, folding his arms over his chest.

"Nothing that has landed one of your teammates in the hospital," he said.

Lir dropped her eyes to the floor, thinking of all the things she'd give not to be in the middle of this. For a moment, neither Dreyar backed down as Laxus pitted his stubbornness against his grandfather, which quite frankly sounded like trying to beat down a brick wall with pillows. But Makarov glanced to Lir and it wasn't like he had to look hard to see her discomfort.

He sighed. "Well, let's hear it then."

Laxus detailed the lab under the temple, walking Makarov through their journey out, including the potion equipment, the fish creature, and the subsequent fight.

"Lir did what she could but that thing was a monster. She tackled it to stop it from downing me which was when she got stabbed with its spines," he said.

She almost turned to gape at him. He'd very nearly complimented her and she was starting to wonder if he and Mira had switched bodies when they walked in the guild hall.

"So what exactly were you doing fighting such a creature with a mage unprepared to do so?" Makarov demanded.

Lir steeled her emotions, he wasn't insulting her, he was criticizing Laxus for taking her on a mission she shouldn't have been on. It was a candid assessment of her skills. She couldn't let her sensitivity keep her from saying her piece.  
"Please, Master Makarov. It really wasn't Laxus's fault. The rest of the mission was totally fine," she insisted.

"Lir please don't try to cushion this. He knew the risks and didn't mitigate them properly," Makarov said.

"He couldn't have known that was down there!" she exclaimed, desperate to make her point. "I've never seen anything like that in any other ruin, he had no reason to believe it was there. We didn't even find it on purpose!"

Makarov leaned on his elbows and laced his fingers together and the room went dead silent as he contemplated. Her heart hammered in her throat, if he blamed Laxus for how the mission went she'd never be able to look her fellow dragon slayer in the face again.

"If it was truly unexpected then -"

"It was!"

"Alright, alright, I believe you," he said, his face softening. "The important thing is that you're all back safe."

Then Makarov dismissed them and they quickly filed out into the hall, not eager to give him time to think of something else to berate them for. Lir was just relieved he'd gone easy on them and let them leave without some serious consequences. She'd heard Makarov could be a bit of a sadist when it came to doling out punishments. They walked back to the bar to fill out the paperwork that Mira had for them, including the incident report about Lir's hospital stay which Laxus also had to sign as the team leader.

Then, Mira handed them each a stack of Jewels - the reward minus the guild's cut. The clip held more money than she could hope to earn in several months and she was ashamed to admit it almost made the brush with death worth it. Whatever expression she wore must have screamed her thoughts because when she looked up Laxus was giving her a knowing, irritating grin.

"Told you it'd be worth it," he said.

_For fucks sake. _

"I almost died," she hissed.

"Almost isn't dead," he said. "And that's what you have to do if you want to get ahead of the other scrubs in this guild."

On one hand she felt insulted for herself and the others, but on the other it felt like he was trying to help her for some reason. She couldn't manage a glare but she at least gave him a look that said she wasn't convinced.

He just shrugged. "I'm just telling you how it is. And you could be stronger than most if you actually tried."

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

"Let me know when you get some real training in, pincushion. You could be useful eventually," he said.

"Oh my gods, you're insufferable," she muttered, knowing full well his enhanced hearing could pick it up.  
He laughed in his usual biting way, making her face burn red, before walking off with the Thunder God Tribe. She let out a heavy sigh like she'd been holding her breath since the mission started. What a nightmare. But at the same time, it was significantly less awful than it could have been; the Thunder God Tribe were far nicer to her than she anticipated and Laxus was only half the asshole he made himself out to be.

She collapsed on a bar stool and Mira placed a glass of water in front of her.

"Thanks," Lir said.

"How was it? Were Laxus and the others mean to you? I can tell the master and he'll -" she started.

"Mira," Lir interjected. "It was fine, really. The last fight was the only really bad part about the whole job."

"Are you sure?" she asked, that harsh intensity creeping back into her voice.

"I'm sure."

Mira didn't look convinced but didn't get to press any further because Warren ran up to the bar.

"Lir, what happened? I heard you went on a mission with Laxus, are you alright?" He asked, his eyes wide with concern.

"I did, I'm fine though," she said.

He gave her a skeptical look and she was suddenly paranoid he was reading her mind.

"I got a little banged up. But I'm okay," she insisted.

"So what were the rumors I heard about you winding up in the hospital?" he asked.

"Those weren't rumors," Mirajane said in a cheery, sing-song voice.

"Mira!" Lir exclaimed.

She gave a casual shrug before walking back up the bar. Warren fixed her with a look that said "I expect you to spill all the beans."

"Yeah, I wound up in the hospital after getting stuck by some venomous monster," she said. "They said I got pretty delirious before fainting but I swear I'm fine now."

"Wow. I mean I guess I shouldn't be surprised by a job of that caliber but that's intense," he said.

"It was crazy, there was some giant monster made of bones and another one that was half man, half fish, never seen anything like it before," she added. "It knew magic that I do."

"The deep sea stuff?"

"Yeah, it was way better at it than me, too," she said.

Warren sat down next to her. "Well, that's some pretty strange magic, I wouldn't beat yourself up about not knowing it well. Especially without a teacher."

"Yeah, I guess," she said, slouching on the bar.

Laxus had got in her head, maybe she really hadn't been trying hard enough to figure it out. After all, he was more than competent with dragon slayer magic despite not having been trained by a dragon.

"Hey Mira, how'd you make it up to S-Class so young?" she asked.

"Unchecked teenage aggression," Mira said with her characteristic sweet smile.

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Ask anyone that's been in the guild a while, I used to take every dangerous job I could get. Having magic that's inclined to offensive power helps too. You could probably do the same thing with your Dragon slayer magic," she said.

If Mira and Laxus were giving her the same advice it had to be true, and she got the sense that being a powerhouse would be a huge benefit to her in Fairy Tail. Ochre Willow always had a plethora of ruin exploration and artifact recovery jobs that often required minimal fighting. Fairy Tail, on the other hand, received a wide variety of jobs with the common thread of requiring a powerful mage to complete them. She needed to expand her wheelhouse, having such a narrow speciality wasn't going to get her far.

And she really wanted Fairy Tail to work out.

But before she could ask if Mira knew of any jobs that were closer to the high A, low S range the front doors of the guild burst open and Erza shoved Gray, Natsu, and Lucy inside.

"To the Master's office, now," she ordered.

The three scrambled across the hall followed by Happy who was wailing something about punishments. Erza stalked after them before slamming the office door behind her.

"What the hell is that about?" Warren asked.

"Oh, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy snuck off with an S-Class job. Gray was supposed to bring them back but the Master had to send Erza after them in the end," Mirajane said.

"What idiots," Warren said, shaking his head. "How did they think that was going to end?"

"It was Natsu's idea so I'm not sure there was much thinking going on," Mira said.

Warren and Lir chuckled and intently watched the door, waiting to see what the outcome would be. She couldn't hear any shouting so she imagined Makarov was either just disappointed or so angry he had transcended yelling. Regardless, she suddenly felt much better about her meeting with the guild master. Several long minutes later the door to Makarov's office flew open and Natsu, Gray, and Happy bolted out shouting insults at each other. Lucy shuffled out after them looking moderately shell shocked.

"You alright, Lucy?" Lir called out to her.

Lucy turned and her eyes went wide when she saw Lir's state - the scrapes and heavy bandaging weren't pretty.

"Oh my gosh Lir, what happened to you?" She exclaimed.

"I got suckered into a really hard job with Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe. It was a little more intense than I was expecting," she said.

Lucy sat down next to her. "Ugh, same. I went with Natsu on that S-Class job because a golden gate key was part of the reward but I was in _way _over my head."

"Did you get the key?" Lir asked.

"Oh yeah! It's Sagittarius the Archer," she replied, holding it up proudly.

"That's awesome! What hell did you have to fight to get that as a reward?"

"You'll never believe me but one of Zeref's demons," she said with a grimace.

"_One of Zeref's demons?" _Lir demanded, smacking her open palm on the bar.

Lucy grimaced at the memory. "Yeah, Deliora I think. We only beat it because Gray's old master had it trapped in Iced Shell for, like, ten years."

"Laxus and I fought some freakish fish-man-hybrid that nearly killed me with its venomous spines," she said, gesturing at her bandaged shoulder.

Lucy shook her head. "I swear, half the mages in this guild are insane."

Lir gestured vaguely at the hall. "I think you have to be to get as strong as they do."

"I guess there's no hope for us then," she said with a giggle.

They both broke into laughter and Lir felt a little relieved. She wasn't the only one feeling as though she was in over her head running around with juggernauts.  
When Lucy reeled her composure back in she had to wipe a tear from her eye. "We should go on a job together. Makarov didn't let us keep the payout from Galuna and I am _not _trusting Natsu's judgement again," she said.

"I'm down for anything. I've been looking to shake up the jobs I take," she said.

"Awesome! Lucy exclaimed.

"Wait, wait, wait," Warren cut in. "I have dibs on Lir. We don't have to go treasure hunting again but you said you'd take a job with me next."

A feeling Lir could only describe as warm and fuzzy filled her chest. She had friends that wanted to go on jobs with her. She had options and freedom and no one was holding her on a tight, choking leash. She couldn't wait to see what tomorrow held for her.

AN: I made a slight shift in the order of events here, pushing back the initial Phantom Lord attack. I know Team Natsu is supposed to return to the guild hall to discover the destruction caused by Gajeel but I wanted Lucy and Lir to talk before that occurred.

Thank you for the comments! They mean a lot to me!

Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


	7. Starting Shit

Chapter 7: Starting Shit

At the end of every week Mirajane would reorganize the job board and clean up the mess she hadn't been able to get to while trying to manage the guild's insanity. Lir, in her infinite awkwardness, had shown up to the guild extremely early on her first day when only Mira was there moving barrels of beer. She couldn't not offer to help and it had just turned into a regular thing with the two of them. Sometimes if there was a lot of paperwork Levy would also help out but the current workload was mostly cleaning and repairs. So they had met up in front of the Strauss's house and were walking to the guild under the slowly rising sun.

"Oh you wouldn't believe what I had to do to get the King to give us that job," Mirajane said, readjusting her stack of notebooks and loose papers.

"Really, like what?" Lir replied.

"I had to promise that _Mystogan _would complete it," she said, leaning in and lowering her voice like it was a secret.

"What!" she exclaimed. "Can you do that? I've never even seen that guy!"

"Well I just had to ask the Master to pass on the message and Mystogan got it done in no time."

"And he was willing to do it? He just seems so… cut off from the guild."

Lir had only been present for one of his visits to the guild and of course hadn't even caught a glimpse of him due to his sleeping spell.

"He does really care about the guild, he's just reclusive," Mira said as if "reclusive" covered the lengths he went to not be seen.

"He must if you knew you could ask him to do a job like that."

"Oh yeah, I think -" Mira started only for her words to die in her mouth as they rounded the last corner.

They stopped dead, paralyzed by the sight before them. Giant, metal rods pierced through the guild hall at every angle and it was a miracle it was still standing. Shattered glass and shrapnel lay strewn on the street. A lead ball of dread settled in Lir's gut and a chill swept over her.

"I… what… what is this?" she asked.

"Phantom Lord," Mira replied, her voice deadly serious.

"What?"

Mira stormed towards the guild and marched right through the doors that hung loose from their hinges with Lir scrambling after her. The hall looked worse on the inside somehow. One of the rods had crushed the bar and shattered liquor bottles were scattered everywhere. The broken glass crunched beneath their feet as they picked their way through the building. Mira's shoulders were tight as a bow string and her hands were clenched into fists at her side.

"Those _animals_," she said, her voice quivering with anger.

"How do you know that they did this?"

"This is definitely the work of Black Steel, their ace mage. His name is Gajeel and he's a dragon slayer like you, Laxus, and Natsu," she said, still glancing around the room.

"What! How have I not heard that there is another dragon slayer?" Lir exclaimed. "Is he like me and Natsu or does he have a lacrima?"

Mira turned to her. "I'm not sure, he's pretty reclusive besides all the trouble he causes. And Phantom mages don't embrace celebrity status the way other guilds do, I think because it gives the council less information about them."

"They certainly sound like an upstanding bunch," she said with heavy sarcasm.

"It's a miracle the council hasn't revoked their legal status yet."

"So what does this mean, are we going to fight them?"

"We can't retaliate or that would constitute a guild war and the council would shut us down," Mira said.

"Oh seriously? That's so stupid."

Even she knew how slow and bureaucratic the council was, only really responding when something directly affected them or when they stood to gain from a situation so chances were slim that they would really do anything over vandalism.

"It doesn't help that the council doesn't particularly care for us. And since no one was hurt I doubt they will actually do anything other than give Phantom Lord a slap on the wrist," Mira said, shaking her head.

"I bet Phantom knew that when they did this," Lir added.

"I would bet _a lot _of money on that," she replied.

They stood in silence for a long moment, really trying to wrap their heads around the destruction and the chaos that would follow as the other guild members arrived. It had never even crossed Lir's mind that guilds would attack each other. Ochre Willow had been so small that they never even had rivals, never mind someone that would wreck their guild hall.

"Let's check the basement, we can set up down there if it's in better shape," Mira said.

They walked back outside before going through the storm doors around the side of the building. Thankfully the basement seemed to have escaped the attack unscathed but was packed with assorted crates, barrels, and boxes, leaving no room for day-to-day guild operations.

Mira let out a heavy sigh. "Do you mind helping me get this cleaned up?"  
"Of course, where do you want to start?"  
Over the next hour they rearranged the containers into furniture and set up a new request board on a stack of crates. It wasn't intensive enough of work to keep her mind occupied so frantic thoughts bounced around in her head and clamped a vice grip around her chest. Would there be further altercations? What else would Phantom Lord do? Did Makarov want to do anything about it? How would the other guild members react? She certainly wasn't happy about it but she also wasn't one of the members who had spent their entire childhood in the guild. She almost didn't want to see Natsu and Erza's reactions to the destruction.  
Thankfully the first mages to arrive were among the more level headed; Warren, Bisca, Reedus, Macao, and Wakaba all helped to set up operations in the basement after taking a moment to reckon with the damage. Lir had no idea what was in the crates but there were plenty still to be moved. Warren helped Mira sort through the rest of the paperwork while the others helped her rearrange the room.

She couldn't seem to get a grip on her racing thoughts and increasingly worse scenarios kept popping up in her mind. Eventually they overrode her focus on lifting a barrel onto her shoulder and fumbled it to the ground with a loud thud. She sighed before kicking it so it rolled across the room and collided with the others.

"You hanging in there, Lir?" Macao asked.

She could have played it off as just clumsiness but there was a tone to his voice that implied he knew she wasn't.

"I'm just," she said before pausing for a second. "I'm nervous about all this."

"What, never been in a guild scrap before?"

"No, my last guild was too small for enemies," she said.

He jostled her shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it, kid. This has happened before and it usually blows over without too much fanfare. It's just Phantom being insecure and lashing out."

"You think so?"

"For sure, their guild has been around forever so they still see us as a bunch of upstarts that threaten their legacy as the 'strongest guild in Fiore.'"

A giggle escaped her. "_That's _why they did this? It's so petty."

"You're telling me."

They each grabbed a side of the last large crate and hauled it across the room to stack with the others.

"I heard you're pretty tough though, surviving a job with Laxus and his lackeys, you should be fine regardless of what happens," he said.

"You heard about that?"

"I think everyone's heard about it. Laxus almost never brings other mages on their jobs," he said.

"_Everyone_? That's… good," she said, definitely not meaning it. The thought that everyone was talking about her made her stomach twist into a knot.

"It _is _good!" he exclaimed, giving her a playful shove. "That's how you build a reputation."

The basement had been transformed from a crammed storage room to a pitiful recreation of the main hall. But it was better than nothing and just like Macao's perspective made her feel a little more calm. They could continue on as normal regardless of what Phantom Lord did. The tightness compressing her chest slackened a bit and continued to do so as the other guild members arrived. Elfman swore on his honor as a man that he'd beat up the mage responsible for the destruction and Cana and Max ranted at each other about the gall of Phantom Lord.

Things only heated up more when Natsu and his team arrived and he was by far the angriest, shouting and nearly lighting anything close to him on fire the moment he walked in.

"I'm going to turn all those Phantom assholes into ash!" he yelled, nearly incinerating a barrel.

"Chill out, flame breath," Gray snapped. "There's no point in wrecking our place even more."

Erza was able to get him to at least sit down and stop slinging fireballs by threatening him with mortal injury although he continued to look pissed off.

Makarov wasn't long behind Team Natsu and brought a sense of tension with him that swept over everyone the moment he arrived. The heated discussions of how to deal with Phantom Lord died down to hushed muttering as they waited for his verdict. He was remarkably quiet, only a hint of seriousness on his face as he listened to Mira's rundown of the damage. After several minutes he called Erza over and began to explain something to both women and they listened intently. Lir couldn't hear what they were saying over all the other talking in the room but they seemed to reach a conclusion.

"Alright everyone, listen up," Makarov announced, his voice cutting clear across the basement. "I don't need to explain to you what happened but I will tell you how we are going to handle it."

Everyone's heartbeats pounded in Lir's ears for the moment he was quiet, managing to rival her own.

"We will not be lowering ourselves to Phantom Lord's standards by retaliating with further violence. Our guild hall can and will be rebuilt and they will simply be known as the guild that attacked another unprovoked," he announced.

"What!" Natsu exclaimed, outraged.

A smattering of quiet chatter broke out at his decision, seemingly unsure of what to make of his reaction. Lir was relieved and all the tension collapsed out of her shoulders.

"We don't know what information they may have obtained while here so for the time being travel in groups of at least three. I recommend that none of you stay in your usual homes alone," he said.

"Come on, Gramps! We have to show those assholes what they get for messing with us!" Natsu shouted, jumping on top of a table.

"Natsu you will be in untold amounts of trouble if you do anything to Phantom Lord," Makarov said.

"So we're just going to let them get away with wrecking our guild hall?" he demanded, his fist igniting. "I say we go show them what Fairy Tail is about right n-"

Makarov cut him off by slamming him to the ground with a giant fist. "That's an order, Natsu! I won't be hearing any more about this! We will continue on as usual until we get the hall repaired."

It was like he'd dropped a wet blanket over the entire room, the righteous anger fizzling out as they all realized they weren't going to get a go at Phantom Lord. A sense of guilt welled up inside her as she felt decidedly more relieved than disappointed. She probably should be upset she wasn't going to get retribution for her guild but she really, really didn't want a fight with Phantom Lord. If a single one of their mages could wreck their hall, what else could they be capable of?

Not much else got done at the guild for the rest of the day, no one felt particularly up to taking new jobs and most left early to sort out where they would be staying for the time being. Lir's house was on the outskirts of the city, leaving her isolated if trouble did arrive on her doorstep, and also too small to invite other mages over so when Warren offered her a spot at his place, she jumped on it. Max, Vijeeter, and Alzack were also joining them to round out their little unit. They would probably hold up well in a fight; she had plenty of experience with Warren, Max, and Vijeeter and she couldn't imagine Alzack's gun magic not being helpful.

They were all a little nervous about the idea that there were Phantom Lord mages lurking in the city so they moved around the city together, stopping at each of their houses to pack their bags before making their way to Warren's apartment.  
"I'm surprised you're not staying with Bisca," Max said, elbowing Alzack in the side.

"Shut up!" he exclaimed. "Besides, she said she was going to stay in Fairy Hills with a bunch of the other girls."

"Bummer," Max replied.

Alzack huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, his face starting to turn pink. Lir chuckled, earning her an annoyed-but-not-really glance from him.

"How come you didn't get a room in the Hills, Lir?" Vijeeter asked.

She shrugged. "I like having space. It seems so crowded there, you know?"

From what she knew she was pretty much the only girl besides Lucy who didn't live in Fairy Hills.

"I get it, I can't imagine you all knowing my every move," Warren said.

"Is that why you live on this side of town?" Vijeeter asked. "I thought you were secretly broke or something."

"I know you don't think that because you were just giving me shit the other day over how much I work," Warren countered.

Vijeeter shrugged. "You never know, maybe you have a crippling addiction to Quatro Cerberus figurines or something."

Everyone burst into laughter while Warren threatened to make them all stay with Vijeeter. They stopped their teasing, though, when they arrived at his apartment building. It was a huge, stately looking complex made of marble, pillars, and multi-story windows.

"You live here?" Lir asked, almost not believing it.

Warren scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I wanted somewhere quiet and this place has the thickest walls in the city."

"That sounds really nice," she said, trying to decide how much more she was willing to pay in rent to give her sensitive ears a break.

He led them inside through a ritzy foyer with an intricate, bronze chandelier hanging from the ceiling and up three flights of stairs. Halfway down the hall he unlocked a door to let them inside.

"Wow, Warren, your place is huge," Max said, turning in a circle.

It was indeed big for a single guy and just as sparsely furnished as she expected. Every piece of furniture was purely functional and obviously not chosen for any sort of aesthetic cohesion. At the very least there was plenty of space for everyone to lay out their bedrolls.

Several hours and a dinner run later, most of the nervousness about Phantom Lord coming after them had melted away and they were settling in to go to sleep. Warren emerged from his bedroom with an armful of blankets and pillows to join them.  
"You can sleep in your bed, you know, we don't mind," she said.

"I don't know, it feels weird when you're all sleeping out here," he said, dropping his bundle on the floor.

"He's worried we'll prank him," Max said.

"Well, yeah, you guys can't manage to while I'm awake on account of my ability to read your minds," Warren retorted.

Lir's stomach dropped as she frantically tried to recall any embarrassing thoughts she'd ever had around him and knew she was forgetting something.

"Oh come on, we all know you can't actually read minds," Vijeeter said. "You just say that to freak everyone out."

Warren gave him an intense glare for a long moment. "You're thinking about that time I called your bluff about that alleged double-A job of yours."

"Ha! Wrong! I was thinking about that time you fought Natsu and he roasted you!" he retorted.

"I hope you both understand how stupid this argument is," Max said. "You could both just be lying and no one can prove it either way."

Lir and Alzack broke into laughter as Warren and Vijeeter continued to launch jabs at each other. Eventually they conceded that neither could actually prove their side and bunkered down with the others. Their breathing and heart rate slowed to a comforting calmness that made it hard for her thoughts to race or to stay awake. She fell asleep feeling better about the Phantom Lord situation than she had all day.

But the relative peace didn't last and Phantom Lord escalated the situation far quicker than she could have ever expected.

Black Steel, apparently already unhappy with their lack of response, had ambushed and brutalized Levy, Jet, and Droy during the night and left them crucified to a tree in the park. Makarov had immediately declared war on Phantom Lord and they all boarded a train within the hour. The atmosphere of the guild had done a one eighty from morose and frustrated to apoplectic and even Lir had been able to feel fury through her mounting nervousness. It was pathetic. There would at least have been a logic behind taking out a big hitter like Erza or Laxus with an underhanded sneak attack. But Levy, Jet, and Droy? There was no purpose besides trying to provoke a reaction.

Thankfully, the Phantom Lord guild hall sat outside of Oak Town, giving Natsu plenty of time to bounce back from his motion sickness after the long train ride north and return to his fuming. Makarov had Warren cast a concealment spell to keep Phantom Lord from seeing their approach. It didn't turn them all invisible, rather it created a window in front of them, through which they could not be seen. She had to marvel at how clever it was and that he was able to pull it off, there was something so impressive to her about magic that wasn't explicitly offensive. And it seemed to be working because no one came out of the building to confront them. Or maybe they had noticed and were just waiting to ambush them inside.

_You can't think like that! You have to trust Warren!_

She shook her head and rolled her shoulders back, trying to get into the fighting mindset. They were on Phantom Lord's doorstep to make them think twice about attacking their guild members. The image of the Phantom Lord's guild mark emblazoned on Levy's stomach flashed in her mind and sent a renewed rush of anger through her.

"Natsu," Makarov said, not taking his eyes off the front door.

"You got it, gramps!"

Natsu sucked in a deep breath, the scent of smoke emanating from him. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

He launched himself at the door, fists aflame, and punched it down with a single blow. A cacophony of shouting erupted from inside, they had no idea they were being attacked until that moment. All of Fairy Tail surged in with a heated battle cry and immediately began cleaving their way through the hoard of Phantom Lord mages.

The scents of a large scale battle hit her hard and got her blood pumping before she even started fighting. But she wasn't without anything to do for long, as a Phantom mage wearing a puffy orange jacket charged at her brandishing a nebulous, neon green spell circle. She didn't wait to see what it was.

"Water Dragon's Breaker!"

The wave hit him square in the chest and knocked him on his back. She focused on the image of Shadow Gear lying in hospital beds so she didn't feel as bad when she knocked him out with a waterspout. She looked up to find Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Elfman decking multiple mages with each swing. But it didn't make Lir feel reassured, the more powerful mages should have put a stop to such steamrolling by now. She hit another mage with a blast of water launched from a sharp side kick.

Then Makarov's voice called out over the chaos. "Erza! I am going to deal with Jose, I'm leaving you in charge to clean up down here," Makarov said.

He stormed forward, batting mages out of his way like flies before moving up to the second floor.

Half a dozen mages started moving towards her and she moved quickly.

"Water Dragon's Riptide!" she shouted.

The rush of water knocked them off their feet and she followed up with geysers to knock them out.

"Lir! Heads up!"

She whipped around just in time to see Gray launch a particularly burly man through the air right at her. She responded with a water sheathed punch that took the man out of the fight.

"Nice!" Gray exclaimed. "We're gonna be done with these goons in no time."

Natsu blitzed by them in a ball of heat and smoke. "Come on guys, quit standing around!" he shouted with a look of wild excitement on his face.

"Can it, flame breath!" Gray retorted.

She had to wonder if they treated all their fights so blithely and found herself kind of liking it; the levity was much less stressful than Laxus's military precision. But her meta analysis was cut short when she suddenly became aware of a presence above them. Before she could even look up a huge guy with a wild mass of black hair and a dozen facial piercings landed in the middle of the brawl, unfazed by the chaos. Metal details adorned his black outfit and scars ripped up his forearms. But if she needed more proof that he was Black Steel, the scent of dragon magic poured off of him.

A wicked grin with prominent canines crossed his face. "I thought I smelled some dragon slayers down here."


	8. Ignite

Chapter 8: Ignite

Gajeel's vicious red eyes connected with hers making her physically recoil. He was every bit the nightmare she'd conjured in her head, exactly the person she could see destroying buildings and crucifying unsuspecting mages to trees. He let out a fiendish chuckle as if a massive scale guild brawl was an amusing occurrence.

Before she could move there was a blur of dark gray and the wind was knocked out of her by an iron rod to her gut. She crashed into a wall, shoulder blades first, and forgot how to breath entirely. No one with an iron based magic should be able to move that fast. She staggered to her feet, bracing herself against the wall to remain upright. The hit hadn't done too much damage but it hurt like a bitch.

"I know there's two of you, where's Salamander?" he asked.

"What?" she asked around heaving breaths. "I'm not enough for you?"

_Why the fuck did you say that?_

She had to wonder if she was suicidal or something. Why had those words come out of her mouth?

He scoffed. "Please, I've heard of you. I wanna fight Salamander."

She honestly would have preferred getting hit again to the stinging dismissiveness of his comment and he seemed prepared to oblige her as he advanced forward. She raised her fists and shifted her weight forward so when he swung his metal arm again she was able to slip around it with just a rush of air hitting her skin. She dodged three more swings before he stopped and gave her a frustrated look.

"You're fast, I'll give you that," he said.

She found that she was out of sass and couldn't offer him a retort. Thankfully, the scent of burning overwhelmed them and the temperature shot up.

"Gajeel!" Natsu roared.

Gajeel deflected the incoming flame fueled punch and pushed Natsu back with his iron arm. Lir backed up, if Natsu wanted this fight he could have it. But Gajeel didn't seem to agree and he slammed Natsu in the head with an iron rod and rushed her again. Her breath caught in her throat. She managed a blast of water that threw off his trajectory just enough for her to slip away. Natsu jumped back in with a flaming kick and Lir followed up with a narrow, high pressure beam of water aimed at Gajeel's jaw. He tanked them both like a brick wall.

"Come on, is that it?" he sneered.

"Not even close!" Natsu exclaimed.

They lunged at each other and traded blows while Lir dashed around for a clear line of sight. For a second, there was several feet of space between them and Lir took a shot at Gajeel, tagging him on the shoulder. Natsu went in with another fire punch, driving him back further. Then, the whole building shook like an earthquake was rolling through and they paused, waiting to see if it would come down on their heads. But the rumbling passed and Gajeel shot an Iron Dragon's roar at them, forcing them to dive out of the way of the shrapnel tornado.

The ceiling rumbled again and a section across the room gave way and debris crashed down to the floor. In the half second her attention was pulled away Gajeel whacked her in the side. She supposed she should have been grateful he wasn't using a sword at the moment.

Natsu continued brawling while Lir reeled on the ground, honestly kind of mad she'd been sucked into this particular fight. She really would have preferred not to tangle with an S Class mage from Phantom Lord. Trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her ribs, she got to her feet. Natsu and Gajeel had torn off across the building in a storm of fire and metal. Should she chase after them? She didn't feel like she'd been doing much except being a punching bag. But she couldn't just leave Natsu on his own.

She took off after them, skirting around other fighting mages and dodging flying spells and wreckage. They were fast, though, and had little regard for who else they hit in their brawl. Natsu hit Gajeel square in the chest with a Fire Dragon's Roar, launching him into the air. He recovered quickly and pulled himself out of his fall by shooting metal spikes out of his heels and driving them into a crossbeam above them. She couldn't help but think he looked like a bat, hanging upside down in his almost entirely black outfit. Natsu followed him up by shooting a blast of fire at the ground, propelling him into the rafters.

"Oh come on!" she exclaimed, flinging her arms out.

She didn't have any way to chase after them, nothing like Laxus's Lightning Body or Natsu's high powered fire. She was stuck on the ground. Her sensitive hearing pulled her from her frustration as she noticed footsteps rapidly approach from behind her. She pivoted on her heel to find a mage with bright purple hair and a glowing sword rushing her and ducked under his swing. As he blundered past her, she hooked her ankle on his, yanked it upwards, and sent him tumbling to the ground.

She looked back up at the rafters for Natsu and Gajeel but couldn't find them before Erza's voice cut through the din of the fight.

"Retreat! Everyone, we're falling back!"

For a second she froze, her brain trying to make sense of what was happening. It wasn't an easy fight but they weren't getting pummeled.

"Fall back!" Erza called again, her voice more desperate.

A shock of worry jolted through her chest but she had to push it aside as several more mages approached her. She sure as hell wasn't getting left behind. Her magic flared and she stepped into her light footed fighting stance. The first two charged her, moving faster than she expected. They were almost within punching range when she hit them with a Water Dragon's Riptide, hurling them back much farther than she expected. The others hesitated for a second and she suddenly developed the gumption to rush them herself. She brought up a wave in each hand and slammed the remaining mages between them, knocking them to the ground, and then hit them with a massive geyser that flung them across the building.

"Come on, Lir! Let's go!" Max shouted.

She shot out a blast of steam and pushed it at the remaining Phantom mages before sprinting for the front door. The others were already a good distance away from the building but Gray and Warren lagged behind, watching the main entrance.

"You okay, Lir?" Gray asked.

"Yeah, I'm good. Did Natsu make it out?"

"No, I haven't seen him," Warren said.

"Me either."

Lir and Gray started moving back towards the guild hall until Warren stopped them.

"He's not in there," he said, pressing on his temples. "I think he's out of my range but he's definitely not in there."

"What if he got his magic drained? Could you sense him without it?" Gray asked.

"What?" Lir exclaimed.

"Yeah, I can still pick up on Makarov, I'd be able to feel Natsu too," Warren said.

"What's going on? Who's draining magic?" Lir demanded.

Warren and Gray exchanged a glance that only served to make her more nervous.

"Makarov got his magic drained by one of the element four. Erza doesn't think we can deal with Jose without him and I have to agree," Gray said.

"Holy shit," she muttered, her head going airy from disbelief.

"Yeah, no kidding," Warren said.

"If Natsu got out we should go. I don't wanna get caught by Jose," Gray urged.

They took off after the rest of the guild. Lir was sure if they missed the train everyone else got on Phantom Lord would catch up and eviscerate them.

_I hope you're alright, Natsu. _

The moment they reached the Fairy Tail guild hall Erza sent everyone into a frenzy of preparations for a retaliatory attack; unpacking lacrima bombs, prepping potions and med kits, and patching wounds from the previous fight. Mirajane sent Bisca and Alzack off with Makarov to Porlyusica's house outside of town before organizing an effort to recall all of the mages out in the field. Macao started planning a second strike on Phantom's guild hall and was analyzing the geography of Oak Town for a more tactical approach.

At some point amidst the chaos Natsu and Happy returned to Magnolia with Lucy and she explained Phantom's true motives. Apparently the whole thing had been instigated by her father when he hired Phantom Lord to kidnap her and bring her home. And they had played right into Jose's hands by leaving Lucy behind and attacking their guild hall. The news elevated the likelihood of Phantom Lord attacking from probable to definite and everyone doubled down on their efforts.

"I'm so, so sorry about all this," Lucy said, her voice thick like she was about to cry. "If I hadn't run away none of this would have happened."

"Come on Lucy, your Dad's the one to blame, not you," Elfman said.

Gray elbowed him hard in the side.

"I mean it's Phantom Lord's fault!"

Lucy's shoulders slumped and a look of utter defeat crossed her face. "No, it's my fault. It was my selfish decision that brought trouble to the guild. I'll just go home so all this will be over."

"I don't know about that," Natsu said. "I can't see you playing the part of the pretty princess, sitting around in your mansion."

Lucy wiped her eyes and looked up at him. "What?"

"Laughing with us in this filthy guild hall? Going on adventures even though you freak out all the time? That's who you really are," he said.

"But, I'm not -" Lucy tried to interject.

"Come on, who are you trying to kid? You're Lucy of Fairy Tail, so no more running because you belong here with us!"

Tears spilled down Lucy's cheeks and Lir's chest swelled with emotions. She was surprised Natsu had that speech in him but she appreciated it nonetheless, it was a good reminder as to why they were in this fight. She could honestly say she'd march straight back to Phantom Lord if it meant keeping Lucy out of their hands. The idea of Lucy being locked back up under her father's control horrified her on a personal level.

"Hey Lir," Mira's voice came from behind her, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Could you help us out in the basement if you're not busy?"

"Sure."

Lir hopped off the stack of crates and followed her downstairs where it was far quieter. Warren sat atop a barrel on the opposite end of the room, his eyes closed and an intense look on his face, trying to contact faraway Fairy Tail mages. Cana sat on the floor with her magic cards spread out before her, every now and then flipping or rotating one.

"No dice on Mystogan or Gildarts," she said with a heavy sigh. "I can't even get a read on where they are."

Mirajane's shoulders sagged. "We should try Laxus. We can't afford not to."

"Alright, but don't get your hopes up. I'd be surprised if he answered a call from me," Cana replied.

She got up and moved to the crystal ball sitting on the table. With a snap of her fingers a white spark of light appeared inside and pulsed as it searched for Laxus. After several torturous moments he appeared in the orb already looking pissed off.

"What is it? I'm in the middle of a job," he demanded.

"We're in a guild war with Phantom Lord. The Master's had his magic drained and we're expecting them to launch an attack against us. We could really use you and the Thunder God Tribe here," Mirajane said.

"Are you serious? You're big girls, you can handle it," he said dismissively.

"Everyone here is already pretty banged up and we can't get ahold of Gildarts or Mystogan, you're the only one left we can turn to."

The longer the conversation went on the more beat down Mirajane sounded, her voice withering like a wilting flower.

"The old man got himself into this mess knowing what he had to work with. He can get himself out," he said, sneering.

"This isn't just a guild fight," she pleaded. "They are after Lucy and they almost got her once."

"Who?" he demanded. "You mean the new girl? Why the hell should I leave this job for her?"

"Because she's a member of Fairy Tail, Laxus!" Mira insisted, her voice lifting an octave. "And so are you."

He scoffed. "And that means I have to come bail you out of a situation you got yourselves into?"

Mira didn't seem to be able to muster another response to him. Lir was seized by the fear that he'd hang up and the words just tumbled out of her mouth.

"We really need your help," she said. "I don't know anyone else who could go up against Jose."

His expression shifted, just slightly, from dismissive and bored to solely serious, and for a moment it looked like he was at least contemplating coming back.

"I'm not leaving a job unfinished just to help clean up a mess the old man made," he said.

Lir's heart dropped to her stomach and couldn't even muster a jolt of anxiety when he locked eyes with her.

"Try not to get yourselves killed," he said before vanishing from the crystal ball.  
Mira's shoulders started to shake and her eyes welled with tears. Lir felt torn; she'd developed something of a fondness or respect for him after the lake temple mission so it hurt to hear him so callously reject them. He found it worth his time to help her with Stargazer, she couldn't see why he'd turn down a chance to play the big damn hero. Or at the very least use it as an opportunity to show up Makarov, as she supposed he'd view it.

"Come on, Mira, we'll be able to get by without him," Cana said.

"I just don't understand how someone so heartless could be in Fairy Tail," she choked out.

"He really didn't have to be such a dick about it," Lir added.

She tried to put him out of her mind, she didn't need to be worrying over him while the threat of Phantom Lord loomed over the guild. If he wasn't going to help she wasn't going to waste her mental energy on him.

"We wouldn't be in such a bad spot if I could still fight," Mirajane said, her voice trembling. "I should be up there with the others."

"Wait, don't be ridiculous!" Cana interjected.

"I feel totally useless being stuck here, I want to help!" she exclaimed, starting towards the stairs.

Cana grabbed her arm. "I understand but you'll only get in the way as you are now."

A tense silence that managed to rouse Warren from his scrying filled the room. He exchanged a worried glance with Lir and she figured it was about time for a change of pace.

"Maybe we should focus less on fighting Phantom and more on keeping Lucy away from them until we can find Mystogan or Gildarts," Lir said.

"I agree," Cana said. "We should at least get her away from the guild hall, that's the first place they'll come looking."

Mirajane wiped her eyes and sniffled. "You're right. We don't have time to waste, we should get someone to take Lucy to the safe house now."

Just as the mood in the room started to lift, heavy, fast footsteps descended the stairs, drawing all of their attention to where Vijeeter stopped a few steps short of the basement floor.

"Guys we have a huge problem," he said.

"Are you serious? What now?" Cana asked.

"Just come see," he insisted before dashing back to the main floor.

They rushed upstairs after him and crowded around one of the intact rear facing windows. He pointed out at the lake and a dark shape in the distance that definitely hadn't been there before.

"How much do you want to bet Phantom has something to do with that?" he asked.

"I guarantee it does," Macao said.

"What is it?" Bisca asked, shielding her eyes with her hand and squinting.

"It has to be huge based on how far away it is," Warren said.

For several tense moments they could only watch as the object drew closer, trying to figure out what it was. Just as it emerged through the haze of long distance the ground began to shake as though an enormous drum was pounding. Almost like it was walking. Lir strained to see it better but her enhanced eyesight really only seemed to kick in underwater. Natsu, on the other hand, seemed to be faring better.

"Is that Phantom Lord's guild hall?" he exclaimed before dashing out the back door.

Everyone chased after him, demanding to know what he was talking about, but it quickly became clear that it was indeed Phantom Lord's guild hall, mounted atop mechanical spider legs, stomping towards them and bringing a sense of abject terror with it.

"How the hell are we supposed to fight that?" Wakaba asked.

"I never anticipated they would go this far to attack us," Erza said.

With each step it created a huge wave that beat on the shore and no one seemed able to respond to the sight before them. Lir found herself even more frustrated with Laxus, they definitely needed his help now. Finally, it stopped and lowered the chunk of earth the guild hall sat upon into the water.

"What the hell are they doing?" Max asked.

Then, one of the front walls on the upper floors slid down like it was just a panel and a long, hollow cylinder telescoped out. A sphere of black energy formed at the mouth and swelled in size at an alarming rate.

_It's a cannon!_

"Run! Get out of here, now!" Erza shouted.

She sprinted forward, the glow of her requip magic engulfing her. The cannon shot continued to grow and was nearly the size of Phantom's entire building.

"Erza! What are you doing?" Loke shouted.

The armor she materialized was navy, silver, and bulky with a large shield attached to each of her gauntlets.

"I'm protecting the guild hall!" she declared.

"That's her adamantine armor!" Happy exclaimed.

"She's not going to try to block the shot, is she?" Bisca asked.

Natsu started to rush forward, yelling for her to stop, but Gray grabbed him. Lir was paralyzed; even though the cannon itself was sitting in a lake she had no power to stop it. It was far too big and well out of her reach. The black orb shot forward with a cracking boom and cleared the water beneath it down to the lake bed. Lir couldn't even hear her slamming heartbeat over the roar of the spell.

Erza locked her shields together and summoned an enormous teal and silver magic circle and the shot slammed into it. For a split second Lir thought that was the end of it but the beam ballooned against the circle and drove hard, focusing into a narrow, bright white beam. Erza's armor cracked, held for a second longer, and then shattered. She was thrown back like she'd been punched and skidded across the ground. Lir, Natsu, and Mirajane dashed forward to her as the cannon blast dissipated along with the magic circle.

"Are you okay? Say something!" Natsu exclaimed, kneeling next to Erza.

She was still moving and looked largely uninjured but she didn't seem to have the energy to sit up. Mirajane lifted her head off the ground to rest in her lap. Then, an unsettling, wicked voice boomed from Phantom's guild hall.

"Makarov has fallen and now Erza can no longer stand. Any chance of victory has slipped through your fingers. Surrender Lucy Heartfilia immediately, you have no choice," Jose commanded.

Lir had no idea how she should respond or what she should be thinking. She wasn't strong enough to make up for Erza, she had struggled against Gajeel, nevermind that the element four and Jose were now also involved. It didn't matter how badly she wanted to keep Lucy out of her father's grip, she wasn't enough to fight off Phantom Lord.

"That's not going to happen!" Alzack shouted.

"Like any guild would hand over one of their own to a monster like you!" Bisca added.

"You hear that? Lucy's staying put!" Macao declared.

Then the entire guild broke into righteous, defiant shouting, every single member was prepared to throw down before they would give into his demands.

"We would never betray her like that!" Erza exclaimed, sitting up with her voice full of fury. "You'd have to kill us first!"

"You can stop asking because we're not going to give you any other answer!" Natsu bellowed. "We're taking every one of you jerks down!"

At that, the rest of the guild was whipped into a frenzy and Lir felt it too. The immense surge of emotion was brand new and impossible to describe; loyalty, anger, determination, and love roiled in her chest and seemed to light her magic reserves on fire. She felt wildly powerful and almost wanted to run into Gajeel again.

"If that's what you want then I'll give you a second helping of Jupiter!" Jose shouted, sounding absolutely livid. "You have fifteen minutes to ponder the folly of your actions!"

A horde of black, shadowy figures burst out of Phantom's guild hall and swarmed towards them. The cheering petered out but the intense feeling still remained as they prepared to fight.

"You're in quite a quandary, aren't you, Fairy Tail? There are only two ways this situation can play out; either my troops will tear you apart or you'll be blown away by Jupiter," Jose said.

"Are you kidding me?" Macao exclaimed. "If he fires at us he'll kill his own men!"

"Surely he's bluffing, who'd do something like that?" Wakaba said.

"No, he's going to do it," Cana said, much to their dismay. "Those Phantom soldiers are created by Jose's shade magic. They're not human so it won't matter to him if they're destroyed."

"Oh good, they're basically ghosts," Warren said sarcastically.

"We have to do something to take out the Jupiter cannon," Cana said.

Natsu pounded his fist against his palm. "I'm going to smash that thing to pieces. Let's go, Happy!"

"Aye sir!"

He took off running and Happy snatched him by the scruff of his vest before lifting him into the air and they bolted for the cannon.

"Elfman, Lir, we're storming the place too," Gray said.

"Hell yeah!" Elfman exclaimed.

"Right!" she said.

They both ran after him to the shore of the lake where she took over the transportation. She increased the surface tension of the water in a small radius, allowing them to stand atop it, and then propelled them forward like a speedboat. The shades passed over them and she hoped the others on land would be alright, there were so many of the things that they nearly blotted out the sun. She stopped just short of the chunk of earth and Gray opened a spell circle beneath them, creating a pillar of ice that lifted them to the guild hall. He made another that lifted them to the muzzle of the cannon where they found numerous scorch marks but no significant damage or Natsu or Happy.

"Where the hell did flame brain go?" Gray asked.

"Inside I'd bet," Lir said. "It doesn't look like he was able to do much out here."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go," Elfman said before dropping down into the cannon's bore.

Lir and Gray followed and were greeted by the echoing sounds of a fight and the scent of fire. As they slid down, Lir re-centered herself on the new, wild bundle of emotions in her chest that made her want to fight the element four.

AN: Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


End file.
